The Breeders’ Cup has signed E-Trade to a one-year sponsorship deal as the first official online brokerage partner of horse racing’s annual championship event.
As part of the deal, the live streaming of the championship races will be presented by E-Trade on the Breeders’ Cup website. E-Trade will receive media on NBC and NBC Sports Network and hospitality at the races, which will be run Oct. 30 and Oct. 31 at Keeneland Race Course.
Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
E-Trade’s “customers and prospects have many diverse interests,” Kyle Okimoto, E-Trade senior vice president of marketing, wrote in an email. “The tradition, loyalty and passion of the horse racing fan base is a nice match with who we are trying to reach.”
Okimoto said E-Trade will use the sponsorship to connect with the audience watching the race on television, as well as those in attendance at Keeneland, in Lexington, Ky.
Bryan Pettigrew, Breeders’ Cup senior vice president of marketing and sponsorship, said his organization hopes to sign a multiyear deal in the future.
“We have a new company that is interested in horse racing,” Pettigrew said. “They are a great brand for our sport, and we hope to demonstrate, like we have in the past, that our owners and participants in the sport will support our corporate partners.”
The digital component of the deal was important to E-Trade, so the company will have a prominent position on the Breeders’ Cup website Oct. 30-31, when NBC’s coverage of the races is live-streamed, Pettigrew said.
The races will be broadcast on NBC and NBC Sports Network and E-Trade will get ad units as part of the agreement. Additionally, NBC will produce features highlighting the career earnings of the race participants presented by the online brokerage under the title “E-Trade Long Term Success,” Pettigrew said.
E-Trade will also have signage at Keeneland Race Course and advertising in the official race programs.
Hospitality will include VIP seating for E-Trade’s guests and an E-Trade Lounge at the Taste of the World, a private event for horse owners to be held the Thursday night before the races at WinStar Farm, a horse breeding farm near Keeneland.
E-Trade’s Okimoto said that each part of the sponsorship plays a role in the company’s plans to connect with the Breeders’ Cup audience. “We have grown much more holistic in how we connect with our audiences, leveraging multiple channels and touch points from the traditional to the emerging,” he said.
E-Trade did not use an outside agency to assist in the deal.
American Pharoah owner Ahmed Zayat plans to run the horse in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, the $5 million race that caps off the two-day event, marking the first time that a Triple Crown winner is expected to compete. “We are definitely, like other parts of the business, feeling the interest level in the sport increase because of American Pharoah winning the Triple Crown,” Pettigrew said.
