Ubet has significantly increased its sponsorship of regional racing in Australia over the past year, as the company prepares for the brand to merge into the Tabcorp business.
The deal, which sees two of Australia's largest wagering businesses Tabcorp and Ubet's parent company, Tatts Group, soon come together, effectively ends the Ubet brand name.
Ubet head of brand and marketing Kent Madders says the business will continue to heavily sponsor regional racing, particularly in Queensland where it holds a stronger presence, as it looks re-educate punters ahead of the merger.
Ubet has been the alternate version of Tab in every state except for New South Wales and Victoria.
"As part of the Tabcorp/Tatts merger, the Ubet brand will migrate to Tab, making it the main wagering brand for the business nationwide, which is why we need to make people aware of that in our marketing," he says.
"Country racing is a good platform to educate our customers, particularly in regional and rural areas of Queensland. Not that
Tab has an issue with awareness in those areas, it's well known, but it's more about a value perception and ensuring a smooth brand transition."
Madders says the Ubet brand already spends "significantly above the line" in regional Queensland as part of its media and sponsorship strategy. This is mainly due to the different racing culture in the state and the way race meets are split.
He says it's a 50/50 split for metro and regional racing, meaning that the brand has to reflect that in its media spend or risk losing touch with an extremely important part of the business.
"While we're there to partner with Racing Queensland and elevate the profile of regional racing, there's obviously a commercial balance in terms of eyeballs and what you would get in return, which makes it a key part of our strategy," Madders says.
"There's probably too great of a focus on the metro side of racing and you can get yourself caught a little bit in the scrum of advertising that goes on, so it's an opportunity for us to hone that regional space."
'Melbourne Cup of the bush'
Most recently, Ubet became the major sponsor of the iconic Birdsville Races, a racing meet in rural Queensland that attracts more than 7000 people annually and has been running since 1882.
It's also the first time since 1995 that it has a commercial broadcast partner, Sky Racing.
Madders says this and other recent sponsorship deals in McKay, Cairns and Townsville, are all important investments in regional racing and ensure a level of brand relevance for Ubet that its competitors may lack.
"The opportunity to partner on something as iconic Birdsville, which is often referred to as the Melbourne Cup of the bush, makes sense for us from that awareness perspective," he says.
"We want to support Racing Queensland in its endeavours and regional is as important to them as it to us, so they want to elevate the Birdsville as an event and we'll always support them in doing that. In fact, that applies to most."
Birdsville Race Club VP Gary Brook told AdNews the club was also able to increase the prize money of the Ubet Birdsville Cup to $40,000, making it the richest race-meet in Western Queensland.
In the world of metro racing, Network Ten and the Victoria Racing Club have revealed further details surrounding the new Melbourne Cup broadcast deal.
Ten will take over the broadcasting rights of "the race that stops the nation" in 2019 through to 2023, after securing a new five-year deal worth $100 million.
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