Arc's 16 racecourses join Rewards4Racing programme

Rewards4Racing is set to double the number of courses on the programme with the addition of Arena Racing Company's 16 tracks later this year.

The news means British racing's rewards programme, in which the Racing Post is a partner, will expand to 32 racecourses and increase the number of meetings where members can both collect and spend their points from 360 to more than 900.

The programme's members collect Rewards4Racing points when buying racecourse tickets, placing bets with its three betting partners bet365, Betfred and Coral, and when shopping with around 4,000 retailers.

Arc's courses join Rewards4Racing's existing racecourse partners Jockey Club Racecourses and York.

The programme's founder and director Josh Apiafi said: "As the results from the BHA and Great British Racing’s data insight initiative showed, racecourses are not rivals when it comes to the customer. We as an industry are so much stronger working together to grow the sport, than we are as individual stakeholders.

"With Arc's 16 courses joining the programme in the autumn, we will be an important part of their marketing mix to increase attendances and new bookers moving forward."

Rewards4Racing's annual report for 2016 said its members staked more than £1 billion with its three bookmaker partners during the year, resulting in 102,000 tickets to the races being purchased.

Apiafi said: "We will be adding one more bookmaker to the programme from 2018, from there we will be sticking to four partners for the foreseeable future.

"The amount staked by our members with our current three bookmaker partners increased by 40 per cent year-on-year to £1.24 billion.

"With the membership increasing by 16 per cent in 2016, you can see more and more members are using those three bookmakers to gain their points. In fact, over 58,000 new accounts were opened by the membership with our three partners last year."

Rewards4Racing’s membership surpassed the one million mark in 2016 and those members spent a total of £59 million with racecourse and retail partners, an increase of more than 18 per cent.

In all, 170,000 tickets to the races were purchased using Rewards4Racing points last year.

Apiafi said: "2016 was a milestone year for the programme, reaching one million members and an uplift in points collection of 43 per cent."

He added: "The launch of our partnership with Racing Welfare in February has hit the ground running and resonates really well with the membership.

"Every time a member shops online with one of our 4,000 retailers, we as a business donate to the charity."