Experienced journalist and editor covering the sports and betting industry. A football, NFL and rugby specialist, he is a FWA member and judge at the Football Content Awards.
We speak to Tom Mackarel, Founder and CEO of FanCave, about bringing sports influencers and tipsters to the track.
OLBG: Can you describe what FanCave is and how it works?
TM: FanCave is a business dedicated to connecting fans with sports. Our initial focus has been in horse racing, but that’s due to my personal passion for the sport. We take over part of a raceday and deliver betting insights throughout the day from personalities around the sport and interact with fans on stage via competitions.
OLBG: Why did you launch it?
TM: We spotted a gap in the market in horse racing and had these fantastic relationships with tipsters and influencers around racing. We were seeing lots of great benefits being provided around food and music for the wider audience but not much for proper fans of the sport. So that's when we built the fan zone offering and it's just grown from there. Now we have built relationships with trainers, jockeys and syndicates that all provide insights in our fan zones on raceday, which has gone down brilliantly.
OLBG: Do you cover all sports?
TM: We have recently just started offering our service to other sports, having provided fan zones at the Greyhound Derby this year, which was very enjoyable. Now we're in discussions with rugby and cricket clubs, with a view to provide a "FanCave takeover" into these sports soon.
OLBG: What can members expect from tipsters?
TM: Our tipsters are hand-picked to not only provide good tips, but entertainment for people in the fan zones. Educating people about racing and explaining how they do what they do. We also have a host on the day that ties everything in nicely together.
OLBG: Can anyone join?
TM: Absolutely. We had a decision to make early on, either selling tickets in a hospitality area or making it available to everyone. We decided on the latter to ensure that more people could get access.
OLBG: Are there plans to partner with operators in any way?
TM: Potentially yes, for the right partner. We'd like to ensure that when we do partner with an operator it's one that really gets involved in the day itself, and adds something tangible to the experience of fan zone attendees.
OLBG: What do your FanCave fanzone experiences consist of?
TM: The FanCave starts with meet and greets with some influencers and tipsters before we begin interviewing on stage with some of racing’s personalities, all really with one main drive; to provide some betting insights to racegoers for the day and beyond. We also have tipster talks throughout the day, which have been a personal highlight for me and many of the other racegoers and our own DJ, which keeps the atmosphere high.
OLBG: Which trainers and/or jockeys have been involved?
TM: We have delivered fan zones over both jumps and flat. Highlights have been with Ben Pauling and Johnny Burke, who were both very candid, Jamie Insole and Nick Bradley who both gave us winners from not only the days racing at Doncaster for the Lincoln Day, but for the following week, too. It's these kinds of insights that add the real value to the day and the event. We also had the owners of a dog called Cheap Sandwiches in at the Greyhound Derby who were a great fun.
OLBG: Are there plans to expand these?
TM: We have a great relationship with Arena Racing, who own 16 racecourses, and we have plans to expand on our Doncaster Lincoln Day delivery, as well as some independents and Jockey Club courses this year. We've now built into the business model a pop-up fan zone for smaller tracks, too, and have recently partnered with a company called Hunch who provide a gamification service to sports venues that we expect to roll out soon.
OLBG: What else do you think FanCave will be doing in the next one to two years?
TM: Well, our focus will naturally spread to other sports and football will be on the agenda soon, which we think could be really exciting to a large audience. But we also have plans to build an app which will focus on sports betting content as a whole with influencers, ex-professionals and tipsters. We feel as though we've grown well this year given we only started in February, but we've not even scratched the surface.
