StanJames to sponsor Irish Gold Cup

Horse Racing Ireland has approved the plan to consolidate Leopardstown's three current stand-alone meetings in late January and mid-February into one two-day meeting on February 3 and 4. The Irish Champion Hurdle will headline the Saturday card with the Irish Gold Cup taking centre stage on the Sunday.

There will be seven Grade Ones and three Grade Twos run over the course of the two days along with new and existing valuable handicaps. Initially, £1.3million will be available in prize money with the intention of that rising to £1.8million in 2020 with a minimum race value of £65,000.

Two-Day Festival

HRI chief executive Brian Kavanagh, said: 'The HRI Board enthusiastically supported the proposal from Leopardstown to create a new two-day festival of jumps racing in early February and has agreed to enhance its prize-money commitment to the weekend to reflect the increased sponsorship and racecourse contribution.

'HRI believes that the new festival, featuring 15 top-class races, will be very popular as it fits nicely between Christmas and Cheltenham, and will offer perfect opportunities for the top horses not just from Ireland, but Britain as well.

'We would also hope to attract a large number of overseas racegoers to Leopardstown for the weekend.'

About StanJames

StanJames is a remote gambling operator offering online, on mobile and telephone Sports Betting, Casino, Games and Poker. It is a significant part of the StanJames brand which began life in 1973 as a single betting shop in Wantage, Oxfordshire. In the forty years since the brand has grown to become one of the most trusted names in UK betting and gaming.

StanJames is the trading name of SJU Limited and is licensed and regulated by the Government of Gibraltar and the Gambling Commission of Great Britain. The company's online gambling operations are located in Gibraltar. The CEO of StanJames is Denis Kelly. The StanJames brand is available in markets across the world, with sports and casino customers from over 120 countries worldwide, but they focus in particular on the UK market and UK customers.

Betdirect Merger

In December 2007, the firm bought the Betdirect bookmaking company, which was established in 1998, from 32Red for £5.75 million. The Betdirect operation was merged with StanJames in February 2009. In 2008, they bought the online betting business betterbet.com from the London bookmaker Better. In 2009 StanJames started a cooperation with the Austrian BETKICK Sportwettenservice GmbH, together they found the brand SABET especially for betting shops in Austria, Germany, and Europe. In May 2010 they bought 27 branches of regional bookmaker Pageant after the company went bankrupt.