OVG brings Ascot Racecourse into International Alliance fold

Article posted by Coliseum, December 13^th, 2019

Image: Ascot Racecourse and MJR Group Ltd. / Coliseum

Ascot Racecourse – one of the leading racecourses in the United Kingdom – has been made a member of the International Venue Alliance. It is the latest venue to join the Alliance.

Oak View Group (OVG), the global venue development, advisory and investment company for the sports and live entertainment industries, made the announcement that Ascot Racecourse is the latest member to come into its International Venue Alliance fold.

OVG will be a sponsor of Coliseum’s next European conference to be held on March 18-19 at Ascot Racecourse.

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Ascot joins Silverstone Circuit, the NEC Group and the Dusseldorf-based D.LIVE group of venues to become the fourth member of the alliance and the third UK-based member.

Apart from serving as the home of Royal Ascot, QIPCO British Champions Day and other eminent horse-racing events, Ascot is also used as a site for holding banquets, exhibitions, conferences and commercial launches.

Ascot getting into the Alliance fold and its relationship with OVG will particularly devote to gaining international sponsors for the venue.

Juliet Slot, Chief Commercial Officer at Ascot, puts in, “We’re delighted to have joined the OVG International Venue Alliance, and we’re looking forward to having OVG as a strategy partner to attract international sponsors to Ascot and also to working with the other like-minded members to share best practices of being a world-leading venue.”

OVG’s International President, Sam Piccione III, added, “Ascot is one of the world’s best-loved venues, and we’re proud to have them as the newest International Venue Alliance member. It is an honor to be an extension of Juliet Slot’s commercial team as we will help grow their partnership line-up via our international network. Having been to Royal Ascot and numerous other horse-racing events at Ascot this past year, there is no better venue in their industry for brands to align and we can’t wait to get started.”

OVG’s International Venue Alliance got underway in September this year in partnership with Silverstone – the home of Formula 1’s British Grand Prix. The alliance was announced earlier in the year and a leaf has been taken out from the book of OVG’s US Arena and Stadium Alliance, an invitation-only partnership of 28 arenas.

Both of OVG’s collectives are invitation-only, and opens a floodgate of opportunities for independent venues to attract global sponsorship opportunities, additional events and content, and achieve efficiencies of scale that are otherwise only available to large groups.

Almost 600,000 visitors throng Ascot (which enjoys close ties with the Royal family) every year for its various events – prime among them being the Royal Ascot and the QIPCO British Champions Day. It also reaches out to broadcast audience in over 200 countries around the world. Juliet Slot, who was last week named as a board member of the British Olympic Association, feels that international partnerships could translate into significant revenue growth area for Ascot.

In August this year, OVG declared that it was working with City Football Group, the parent company of English Premier League football club Manchester City, to study the possibility of constructing a new facility on land close to the Etihad Stadium in UK. Presently, public consultations are being held on the potential new venue.

Oak View Group which was co-founded by former AEG CEO Tim Leiweke and ex-Live Nation chairman Irving Azoff, launched its London-based overseas division, OVG International, at the International Live Music Conference held in March this year in London. The first OVG International project, Santa Giulia Arena in Milan, was announced in June as a joint venture with Live Nation.

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