The Big Interview: Ed Nicholson, Unibet Horse Racing Supremo

Ed Nicholson is the Racing Communications and Sponsorship boss at Unibet. He started his career as a broadcaster and PR manager at Ladbrokes. After seven years with the company, he set up his own betting public relations company.

Nicholson is the Head of Marketing at 888sport since 2008. He will complete his 10th full year at Kindred Group in late 2022. His brief was to launch Unibet into the UK market.

Unibet launched in May 2013 and it took six months to get its sports betting provider partner Kambi up and running. Since then, Unibets has invested in its own proprietary racing platform and invested heavily in marketing and sponsorship. Uniberet is the current recipient of the EGR Horse Racing Operator of The Year.

Unibet sponsored a series of hurdling races in the UK and Ireland. The Road to Cheltenham is a six-month long series with eight races. The company wants to create a narrative and reason to engage in its brand. It wants the audience to resonate with the target UK audience. They want to make it a high-octane, media-friendly, mainstream televised championship race.

The Road to Cheltenham was an initiative set up by Nicky Henderson. It was a sponsorship initiative to promote the Unibet Champion Hurdle in March. The final leg was called the Champion hurdles trial at Haydock.

Unibet has sponsored 39 chases to date. The major one was the Unibets Irish Gold Cup. Kindred, Uniberet's parent company, sponsored the 32Red King George. Nicholson was in talks to add to the King's Chase sponsorship Cotswold Chase and Cheltenham Gold Cups.

Unibet has sponsored more flat races than jumps races. The company sponsors 1,142 flat racing races and 42 Group-1, Group 2, or Listed flat race handicaps. For the past three seasons Unibets has been the Official Betting Partner at the Qatar Goodwood Festival and Windsor.

Unibet has an exclusive sponsorship deal with trainers Nicky Henderson and Richard Hannon. It is the best sponsorship or partnership he has undertaken. The association with Seven Barrows stable extended the sponsorship. The Seven Braggs stables were branded and the owners were also branded. Nicki Henderson wears Unibets branding when at the stable and on TV interviews. He also visits the Seven Brows stabled for media visits around the big meetings. When UniBet sponsors and has guests, they can ask Nickie to come and mingle. They also ask him to pose for the obligatory selfie.

Ed Nicholson is the owner of Unibet Horse Racing Supremo. Nicky Henderson's blog and exclusive comments have upset traditionalists. Ed Nicholson believes the blogs are a brand play. He also believes that the Henderson blog has enlightened, educated and informed more people than the reports were. Ed has been present on many mornings in Nick's office and on the gallops to see it. The blog is run by Nick and his stable team.

Racing is still an important sport for sponsors, but things change and there is a lot of pressure on marketing and sponsorship budgets. There are many sports in which you can sponsor and the digital landscape is such that value is there rather than in physical race sponsorship race titles.

Ed Nicholson is a big fan of the Unibet Champion Hurdle. He would like to see Honeysuckle win it again. Nicholson backed Chantry House for the Gold Cup before he ran in the Marsh last season at 40/1.