Spreadex signs two-year renewal for North American racing with XB Net

The deal sees the St Albans-based operator renew the rights on XB Net’s wealth of live pictures, data and betting services across an unrivalled network of over 50 North American tracks, allowing Spreadex to flexibly load its daily timetable with a deep well of fast-settling betting opportunities that are proven to drive digital dwell-time and diversify revenues.

Spreadex’s popular daily markets will continue to feature aggregated performance markets, race-by-race index spreads and binary fixed-odds markets. While XB Net’s end-to-end solution opens up many of the world’s most prestigious horse races, including this weekend’s Belmont Stakes, the Preakness Stakes, the Pegasus World Cup and the Breeders’ Cup, alongside a suite of storied dog tracks in Florida.

Saturday night’s Belmont Stakes raises the curtain on a U.S. Triple Crown rescheduled in the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic. A stellar card, kicking off at Belmont Park just hours after the final race at Royal Ascot, reaches its climax with the Belmont Stakes (22:42 BST) where the undefeated Tiz The Law has captured the betting market and local fan attention at the famous New York track. Winner of the Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park, Tiz The Law has already booked his spot at the Kentucky Derby on 5^th September, with the Preakness, the final jewel in the Triple Crown and another XB Net flagship race now set for 3^rd October.

XB Net is the pacesetter for live North American racing content, managing international rights, data, odds and live broadcast and video streaming on behalf of its growing global portfolio of partners. Harnessing low-latency feeds from more than 2,500 meetings, showcasing over 25,000 races per year, North American racing is converting untapped audiences as global operators plug the gaps on an interrupted calendar of live sport.

Simon Fraser, Senior Vice President of International at XB Net, said: “It’s a real validation of our team’s hard work that a name as respected as Spreadex has renewed our full package of pictures, data and content rights. North American racing has been one of very few top-class sports which has been able to maintain a robust timetable and a high bar for top-notch, rapid-cycle content that can be used to fill the void across any slot or time zone.

“Although high-class horse racing has happily returned to the UK, those viewers and bettors who were drawn to North American racing during the lockdown have largely been retained which is very encouraging. This weekend’s Belmont Stakes in New York, whose undercard is also screened live on Sky Sports, can again prove the point by picking up the bit from the final day of Royal Ascot on Saturday evening. Maybe the Queen and Queens aren’t so far removed after all!”

Shaun Howells, Sports Room Manager at Spreadex, added: “We’re thrilled to be renewing these distribution rights in our ongoing alliance with XB Net, whose one-stop shop for betting services has opened our customers’ eyes to the excitement and accessibility of stateside racing, creating extra revenue streams in the process. With many of our clients located in the UK, there are natural leisure-time synergies to be had with North American racing, We’re delighted to see that levels for engagement and retention have improved as a result.”