Super 12 Racing throws open search for £1m sponsorship
Super 12 Racing, the umbrella company for the UK’s top racecourses, has thrown open its search for £1m of sponsorship cash to other sports marketing agencies after Sportsworld Media Group failed to secure a deal.
The news will come as a further blow to troubled Sportsworld, which last week went into receivership after running out of money and failing to find a buyer.
As a result of the drawn-out sponsorship search, the competition, which was originally planned for May, will now start in November.
Super 12 commissioned Sportsworld to find a title sponsorship plus four associate sponsors for its Super 12 Challenges competition on an exclusive basis in September (MW September 20, 2001).
The competition will be a series of races operating under a football league-style format, with trophies for the top jockeys and horses in both jumpand flat-racing. The racecourses hope it will increase the sport’s appeal.
Super 12 chief executive Kim Deshayes says that four other sponsorship agencies are on the hunt for his company, as well as Sportsworld, with the commission going to agency that can pull in the deal first.
Deshayes comments: “Sportsworld has been in the market for six months and although it has developed some interesting dialogue with companies, none of those companies have executed any agreements with us and there was no guarantee they would.”
