Dean Shannon – Part One – Down to business

The New Zealand TAB has entered a partnership deal with Australian Based Entain – one of the world’s largest wagering and igaming businesses.  

In this two part series Bruce Stewart talks to Entain CEO Dean Shannon about his early life and Entain’s plans for the New Zealand TAB.  

Dean Shannon was born in the United Kingdom and his parents immigrated to Australia when he was four. 

“They settled in Redcliffe in a street right next to the trotting track. Our parents often took us to Albion Park and the Silks Restaurant. I really just enjoyed the spectacle of it. When I got a bit older I’d often go to the Redcliffe trots,” Shannon said.” The fascination for the trots was the spectacle and the fascination of the sulkies. Later in life it became more about the horse, and I loved the standardbred’s lovely nature.” 

In his early twenties Shannon had a short stint as an on course bookmaker. 

“I fielded at the Gold Coast races and at Ipswich. As a young man it was a bit stressful. I tell you what, it definitely sharpened up your maths if people wanted to have two dollars fifty each way on something that was eleven to eight. Being a punter it was good to be sitting on the other side, but I must say I wasn’t very good at it.” 

He took a different course and went to work in retail. 

“I ended up being the corporate accountant for Big Box Retail, an Australian retail service, selling on-line specialising in electronic, home appliances and outdoor products.” This was followed by involvement in the online space, particularly online entertainment. 

Betting was an enjoyable hobby. 

“I’ve always had an interest since I was allowed to bet. I still have a bet every weekend. I retired in 2012 and was getting a wee bit bored so I started to get involve with on-line betting. Bookmaking was starting to get competitive in the Australian market and I thought there was a bit more to be offered.” 

As a result, he started bookmaker.com.au which he sold eighteen months later to Ladbrokes. 

“I then launched the Ladbrokes business here (in Australia) in partnership. I finished there in 2017. I went away and thought about what I wanted to do and launched another bookmaking business called Ned. We developed our own software and had a slick, modern technology platform. At the time, Entain had acquired Ladbrokes and they purchased my business.”  

Shannon says being a punter made him aware of what the sector required and was helpful in building his racing platforms. 

“Over the years I’ve set it up the way I’d like to bet. My punting has certainly helped me in how I approach the business.” 

Six months after Entain purchased the business (end of 2019) he was approached by them and invited to go back and run both businesses. 

“I love it. I said to my daughter that if you enjoy what you do, you don’t have to work a day in your life. That’s kind of how I feel (laughter).”   

On the 1st of June Entain took over the running of the New Zealand TAB and Shannon is excited about refreshing the brand and offering New Zealand punters exciting new products and services.    

“We’re very keen to relaunch the New Zealand TAB in the first quarter of next year. That will have our entire platform behind it. We’ll be introducing new apps and websites and with that comes a bunch of new products.” 

As well as racing, Entain plans to refresh options for sports betters. 

“Within sport we’ve got a deep product range, like same game multis. I think it’s also about modernising what is already there and supercharging it.”   

Shannon says Entain has always been big on offering punters plenty of pre-betting content. 

“Over the years I’ve always been big on making sure we’ve got good information, good runner comments, just to help guide the punters and help with their selections. I see that as a big opportunity in New Zealand and certainly with the Trackside media assets I see it as a great opportunity to go deeper into the pre-betting decision content.” 

He says the New Zealand Trackside channels will continue to play an important part in delivering content.  

“I’ve been coming to New Zealand for about twenty five years and I’ve always really liked the Trackside product. I’ve made the comments to my mates over the years that I actually liked it better that our Sky channel. It’s not to say with further investment that we can’t do better. I’m really looking forward to getting involved in that in the coming months.” 

He says having on-track presenters at racecourses is one of the main drivers in presenting up to date information. 

“It’s one of the things we’re looking at. We need to connect better with the audience out there because we want to win that discretionary spend. I think we need more presenters on course and explain a bit more about racing and betting and what it all means.” 

He says at this stage there are no plans to add another channel to the Trackside television setup. 

“One of the things we’re kicking off now is what investments we need to make in broadcasting so we can deliver what we want to deliver.” 

He acknowledges that over the years the TAB has been under pressure to fund the racing industry and it hasn’t been able to invest into marketing and product. 

“I think an organisation like the New Zealand TAB which is a monopoly, has a role to educate the market. Because of the tightness of the purse strings it’s been difficult for them to do that. This is an opportunity for us to reconnect and make the product more accessible to more people.” 

Shannon says Entain has begun to integrate a lot of the back end workstreams into the TAB system, ready to relaunch in the first quarter of 2024. 

“Within the New Zealand TAB there are a lot of great people and we’ll be working with them to try and get the best outcome. There are things my team needs to understand about the New Zealand market so we make sure we get it absolutely right.” 

The TAB brand will get a refresh and punters can expect to see some new unique products launched into the market. 

“It’s a trusted brand in New Zealand and we want to make sure we keep that integrity in place. Three months after that we plan to launch another brand to give the punters a wider catchment with more choice. We haven’t decided on the second brand’s name, but it will be uniquely New Zealand and will be a full featured mainstream bookmaker.” 

Shannon says it’s important to grow the racing and sports betting base by attracting new customers. 

“What we can do is come in and put a different perspective on what betting all about, so you enhance your experience by having a bet.”   

In Australia Entain has its own content department which produce stories and valuable content to the market. 

“We’ve invested heavily in content in the last couple of years. We’ve put out twelve hundred content pieces, had hundreds of millions of views and amplified that through social media so there are ways to get our stories out there. We have a decent sized team that’s based in Sydney at the moment and we’re adding to that team all the time. We have some capabilities within the New Zealand team as well and within six months we’ll have a real gun team to tackle both markets.”  

One initiative Shannon is keen on introducing to New Zealand is a Racing Club. 

“We buy yearlings or up and going horses and all of our customers will be able to subscribe to those horses. They’ll get all the communications from the trainer. We’ll also do additional content. We’ll send the customers out to the track when those horses are racing. The idea is to give a lot more people exposure to the ownership experience. I think as a consequence we should get a bit more interest in ownership. I can see a group of punters getting together and taking the next step and buying a horse because they’ve enjoyed our quasi ownership experience.” 

He added that there’ll be additional activity around the Racing Clubs where an owner for the day will get a share of the horse’s prize money. 

“There’s no cost involved, just a little bit more engagement as to what happens behind the scenes.”  

So exciting times ahead for New Zealand punters as Entain sets about refreshing and re-energising a brand that hasn’t been travelling too well in a long time. 

In next week’s feature article Dean Shannon talks about his love of standardbreds, his best horses, his partnerships with Darrel Graham, Barry Purdon and Scott Phelan, how he names his horses, and star pacer Merlin.    

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink