France Galop, the nation’s governing body for flat and steeplechase horse racing, has appointed Delphine Violette as its new sales and marketing director. Violette succeeds Fabrice Favetto Bon, and will take on the role from 1 October 2020.
Violette comes from the French Rugby Federation (FFR), where she has held various marketing and sales positions since 2006. She was promoted to director of marketing, sales, and event activities at FFR in 2018, where she oversaw all revenue generating activities including partnerships, ticketing, hospitality, TV rights, meetings, incentives, conferencing and exhibitions (MICE) and licensing.
Olivier Delloye, France Galop’s managing director, commented: “I am very happy to welcome Delphine Violette as sales and marketing director of France Galop. Delphine has all the experience and skills for this position but also a lot of enthusiasm to meet the many challenges ahead. With her arrival, we will be able to accelerate the work carried out over the past three years for the benefit of our events and the growth of revenue from our racing product.”
Violette added: “The emotion of sport has always been at the heart of my professional career. I am delighted to begin this role at France Galop and take up the challenge of promoting racing, and all other activities it organises.”
France Galop recently stated that while proceeds from betting on racing will be down year-on-year in 2020, it has seen encouraging growth in the sector since June. This growth, it noted, had prompted betting operator Pari-Mutuel Urbain (PMU) to raise its full-year profit forecasts.
As of 16 August, France Galop said, stakes were down some 22%, missing out on almost €1bn (£902.6m/$1.18bn) compared to 2019, with gross gaming revenue €335m behind the prior year. This was down to the suspension of French racing, which shut down from 17 March, and did not resume until 11 May as a result of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.
Since June, however, betting revenue for each week has surpassed levels for the same weekly periods in 2019, beating PMU’s forecasts made in April.
