Racecourse Media Group (RMG), the UK-based rights organization that produces and distributes horse racing coverage, has announced the forthcoming departure of its chief executive officer (CEO) Martin Stevenson.
Stevenson will step down as CEO at the end of 2024 having served in the role since 2020, in order to allow new leadership to take over before RMG’s next media rights renewal cycle.
Over the coming months Stevenson will continue his duties while RMG’s board and executive management undertake the search for his successor.
RMG’s current rights cycle, the 2024-28 period, ends on December 31, 2028, with new deals expected to be secured years in advance, which necessitates settled management prior to negotiations.
Stevenson joined RG in 2007 as chief financial officer when the media venture was still in its early days, and since taking over as CEO in 2020 has helped to deliver a number of prominent partnerships, most recently a three-year rights extension with Virgin Media Ireland.
Conor Grant, RMG chair, stated of Stevenson’s impact on the business: “RMG has been a tremendous success in maximizing the commercial rights for its shareholders and generating more than £1.2billion [$1.5 billion] for its racecourse members and British racing. Martin has been integral to this success.
Nevin Truesdale, Chair of horse racing commercial organization The Jockey Club, added: “The success of RMG in delivering significant incremental value to British Racing and enabling the Jockey Club and other shareholder racecourses to invest record amounts into prize-money and other investments over the last 20 years has been in no small part due to what Martin has delivered.
“He has played a key role in RMG’s undoubted success in increasing the value of British racing’s betting and data rights and I would like to thank him, on behalf of all of us at the Jockey Club and the other RMG shareholders, for all that he has done.
“It has also been pleasing to see the innovation which has started to come through as part of the development of Coursetrack, RaceiQ and other data-led initiatives in more recent times. This gives his successor and the great team at RMG a really good base on which to build and continue to deliver significant value for whole sport in the future.”
