Publication Rebrands as the Spotlight Sports Group
The group behind daily national print and online publication The Racing Post has decided to re-brand to The Spotlight Sports Group. The company will bring its four business arms under one collective umbrella and collaborate on services that they will offer to Spotlight’s clients.
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The four business involved in the restructuring are Racing Post, Apsley, ICS (Independent Content Services) and ANZ Bloodstock.
The company has identified six areas in which the Spotlight Sports Group will offer services. These are media, which includes advertising and sponsorship, content retail, trading, agency and translation.
The Racing Post, Launched in 1986, is synonymous with the racing industry and is the first port of call for the majority of horse racing betting enthusiasts and has picked up numerous awards for both journalistic content and photography. The company say the publication will continue in its current guise both in print and online as will ANZ Bloodstock, which offers a Racing Post branded racing news and tips to the Australian and New Zealand markets.
The other Racing Post companies involved in the re-branding are Apsley and ICS.
Apspley, who in 2018 Racing Post took a majority stake in, own several leading affiliate marketing assets along with associated mobile apps. With ICS supplying sports, news, entertainment and industry-specific editorial content.
Louise Agran, Spotlight Sports Group CMO, revealed that the decision to move away from the Racing Post Group name was due to the evolving nature of their business. Agran said there was a need to choose a name that reflected the group’s activities in areas away from the track such as sport, data and trading. Adding;
With that brand name comes an association purely with racing in the UK and Ireland which doesn’t represent our business anymore.– Louise Agran, Spotlight Sports Group CMO.
Agran revealed that the search for a new group identity had taken six months and was a process that had seen 500 names in contention. She did state however the Spotlight name was “always a strong favourite” and added: “Spotlight is about illumination, shedding light and scrutiny, and that’s what we stand for as a group.”
Speaking about the short-term and longer-term goals for Spotlight, COO Mark Renshaw said the company was working hard to integrate four businesses into one. Adding that a lot of work was going on behind the scenes to help realise the company’s aims.
Renshaw revealed that the group’s long-term ambitions were two-fold with the company keen to “get to a much bigger position in sport” with the COO wanting to “utilise the skills and knowledge we have to grow”.
Renshaw also revealed the group’s five-year plan with expansion away from the UK and Irish markets a priority. Adding, “The second is to internationalise. We are largely a UK and Irish business now, but we envisage in five years a significant amount of our income and profits would come from international clients”.
