Summary
Overview
Work history
Education
Skills
Affiliations
References
Timeline
Generic
Ruairi Stirling

Ruairi Stirling

Leeds

Summary

As a self-motivated and ambitious person I am determined to continue to build a successful career through hard work, a willingness to tackle new challenges and the ability to integrate with and contribute to a team effort.


Through nearly ten years in the Gambling and Sports industry I have developed a real passion for the racing industry both on a professional level in work and as a social hobby and pastime outside of work, not only as a regular attendee at racecourses across the country but also with involvement in a small racing yard in Middleham.


With my current role facing relocation abroad later in the year I am wanting to ensure that I can further my career within an industry that I have a huge passion for.

Overview

10
10
years of professional experience
4
4
years of post-secondary education

Work history

Commercial Performance Manager

Sky Bet
Leeds
08.2023 - Current
  • Profit & Loss responsibilities for Sky Bet's Racing and Other Sports products, analysing performance on a day-to-day and week-to-week basis, whilst developing plans to improve performance.
  • Ensured that all activity was effectively measured and reported on, identifying and sharing learnings across Flutter's UKI brand portfolio.
  • With an ROI-focused attitude I have strong analytical skills, with an ability to analyse results and make recommendations on areas of improvement for future activity.
  • The biggest piece of work that I was responsible for was driving fundamental changes to the Horse Racing strategy for the business. Working with several stakeholders around the business the works main objective is to arrest the decline that Racing as a product has been seeing by implementing new strategies across commercial, product & marketing functions.
  • Producing and owning business briefs for key events in the calendar such as the Cheltenham Festival, The Open and Super Week propositions.
  • Owning an eight figure budget, optimising our offer approach and generosity with performance and objectives.
  • Managing and developing talent within the team as an effective line manager.

Racing Sponsorship Manager

William Hill
Leeds
04.2019 - 08.2023
  • Primarily responsible for William Hill’s portfolio of Racing Sponsorship assets alongside the management and content from the stable of ambassadors working for WH, such as Sir AP McCoy & Nick Luck, ensuring that return on investment was maximised across all these deals and assessing relevant opportunities when presented.
  • Responsible for all aspects of Racing Sponsorship assets right through from assessing the opportunities presented to delivering and reviewing the portfolio on a constant basis. I developed my skills to manage these projects from start to finish, assessing the value of potential deals, how they fitted into the strategy of the business, negotiating and reviewing contracts to ensure that best interests were protected.
  • Headline sponsorships such as the Grand National, Racing League, St Leger, Ayr Gold Cup Festival, Aintree’s Becher Chase & Haydock’s Grand National Trial are all projects I managed ensuring that branding & activation was delivered against the commercial strategy of the business whilst remaining within budget.
  • In addition to this I also worked closely with retail and racecourse operations teams to help drive forward WH’s presence on more than 30 racecourses across the UK, building and maintaining relationships whilst focused on improving the in-shop experience for customers on track.
  • Managing WH’s stable of ambassadors, which grew to as many as seven, saw me lead on several content pieces to support sponsorships and commercial propositions around major festivals. By understanding the market growth in these channels was three-fold maximising the impact and engagement they generated.
  • Given the demands of the business I also led on numerous events outside of the Racing Industry, including the William Hill World Darts Championships, Anthony Joshua fights, football and cricket sponsorships plus the prestigious William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award. These drove incredible amounts of media value for the business and it was important to bring teams together from different locations to utilise the assets that we had and deliver record breaking numbers for the sponsorships.

Horse Racing Marketing Manager

Sky Bet
Leeds
07.2018 - 03.2019
  • I was promoted further within Sky Bet gaining additional responsibilities including management of a small team. I was also tasked with the development & implementation of the core racing strategy for Sky Bet.
  • Moving away from the day to day implementation of the racing product I worked on devising & delivering a longer term racing strategy to ensure that growth could be maintained. Using insight and research, obtained from the customer and market trends, I was able to produce a strategic focus with regular touchpoints and objectives to ensure that progress was strong and the right behaviours were being driven.

Senior Horse Racing Marketing Lead

Sky Bet
Leeds
11.2016 - 07.2018
  • Building on my previous marketing role at Sky Bet I gained additional responsibilities within the team, this involved leading and implementing several key projects for the business.
  • I continued to look after the day to day marketing strategy for Sky Bet and took on more responsibilities in the planning and implementation of the wider horseracing plans. This included taking a more active role in both the 2017 & 2018 Cheltenham campaigns where the company was able to build on previous success and increase stakes and uniques once again by 20% and 27% respectively.

Horse Racing Marketing Lead

Sky Bet
Leeds
09.2015 - 11.2016
  • Responsible for marketing the company’s extensive horseracing product, I was involved in a number of projects which involved working with multiple areas of the business, helping to build a strong foundation for my career.
  • Through my experience and knowledge of the betting and racing industries I was able to effectively plan the day to day marketing strategy for the company. I was able to draw on the relationships that I had built with individuals in other teams across the business for guidance and assistance in achieving this to ensure that financial targets were met on a consistent basis.
  • I was involved in the planning and implementation of the marketing campaign for Cheltenham 2016, this was the most successful festival for the company in terms of stakes and uniques with YoY growth of 135% and 66% respectively. This also involved communicating our plans to the whole business through a presentation to all staff.

Marketing Executive

BHA Graduate Scheme & Northern Racing College
06.2015 - 09.2015
  • Beginning with a two-week residential course in Newmarket, the scheme included lectures and site visits covering all aspects of the industry.
  • I then completed a 9 week work placement at the Northern Racing College assisting with on-going marketing projects and helping to organise and deliver the Leger Legends charity race.

Education

BA Honours Degree - Business with Marketing

Newcastle Business School
Newcastle upon Tyne
09.2011 - 06.2015

King James' School
Knaresborough

Skills

  • Performance analysis
  • Strategic planning
  • Project management
  • ROI optimization
  • Team Leadership
  • Budget management
  • Stakeholder engagement
  • Effective communication

Affiliations

  • I enjoy watching and participating in many sports including football, cricket, tennis and golf. However, my real passion is horse racing and I am heavily involved with the small training yard where my parents have a financial interest.

References

References available upon request.

Timeline

Commercial Performance Manager

Sky Bet
08.2023 - Current

Racing Sponsorship Manager

William Hill
04.2019 - 08.2023

Horse Racing Marketing Manager

Sky Bet
07.2018 - 03.2019

Senior Horse Racing Marketing Lead

Sky Bet
11.2016 - 07.2018

Horse Racing Marketing Lead

Sky Bet
09.2015 - 11.2016

Marketing Executive

BHA Graduate Scheme & Northern Racing College
06.2015 - 09.2015

BA Honours Degree - Business with Marketing

Newcastle Business School
09.2011 - 06.2015

King James' School

Similar Profiles

Create profile
Ruairi Stirling