MARK WORWOOD

External Media Communications Manager

WA Police Union

The WA Police Union provides industrial, legal and welfare services to more than 6,000 police officers, police recruits, police auxiliary officers, Aboriginal liaison officers and cadets. Established in 1912, the union acts as a passionate advocate, lobbying for better conditions and protections for its members.

• Manage the union’s external communications, including media-related matters, political liaison and official publications, provide secretariat services to the board and assist the executive with events such as annual conferences, recruitment functions and retirement dinners.

Racing and Wagering Manager

Western Australian Turf Club (Perth Racing)

The Western Australian Turf Club, trading as Perth Racing, is Western Australia’s metropolitan home of thoroughbred racing. Formed in 1852, the club runs two venues, Ascot Racecourse and Belmont Park, hosts more than 90 meetings per season and provides year-round action in Perth’s city area.

• Reimagined the club’s spring and autumn carnivals, including the world’s only thoroughbred racing festival that features a Group One race worth at least $1 million on three consecutive Saturdays – Railway Stakes, Winterbottom Stakes and Kingston Town Classic.
• Supersized the club’s TABtouch affiliate income by more than 1,400 per cent over four years, proposing, negotiating and executing a landmark agreement between Racing and Wagering Western Australia and clubs that benefits affiliates by a seven-figure sum annually.
• Anchored Sky International, Sky Racing Active, Sky Racing World and Sky Thoroughbred Central live broadcasts of the club’s meetings, previewing and reviewing races, interviewing jockeys, trainers and owners in addition to producing the coverage for on-course patrons.
• Conceived the club’s unique Equine All Stars Incentive Scheme, which subsidised the travel costs associated with interstate- and overseas-based gallopers competing in The Masters and resulted in four consecutive years of record-breaking nominations, visitors and runners.
• Brokered the club’s TABtouch mobile wagering deal – and, by association, the arrangement for every other Western Australian racing industry entity – that means the rapidly rising revenue stream, which TABtouch did not attribute to clubs previously, flows to them.
• Presented the club’s preview program, The Box Seat, which is broadcast on course, online and throughout Singapore at Singapore Pools and Singapore Turf Club venues, and teamed up with Brittany Taylor to host The Run of the Race, a Punting Form ratings review show.
• Devised, designed and delivered Perth Racing at Home, a password-protected streaming service that enabled the club’s members – and, subsequently, due to a commercial contract, registered owners to watch preliminaries, races and replays during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Implemented several initiatives, including perforated tip sheets displaying barcodes programmed with the TABtouch blog’s best bet for each of the club’s races, Punting Form reports and Dynamic Odds channels, that made on-course wagering more attractive to patrons.
• Administered the club’s social media platforms – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube – and published a strategic blend of racing, wagering and marketing communications that grew their combined audience to more than 45,000 people, which was 20 times its membership.
• Modernised the club’s racebook, augmenting its traditional elements with perfect binding, colour pages and meeting-specific messages, honoured some of Western Australia’s greatest gallopers with feature races and controversially introduced Good Friday racing to Australia.
• Engaged with the club’s key supporters by launching PR TipStar, a free-to-enter online tipping competition that attracted more than 1,000 regular participants, and PR KickBack, an online ticket rebate scheme that put the fun into fundraising for sports and community groups.
• Organised numerous special events, including the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Queen’s Baton Relay, the 2019 Jockeys Sprint and Ascot Racecourse’s first-ever female race caller, Canadian commentator Dawn Lupul, on International Women’s Day 2020.

Chief Intelligence Officer

Last Minute Mail (closed)

Last Minute Mail was Australia’s premier subscription-based racing and sports betting advisory service. Covering two Saturday metropolitan race meetings weekly and a wide range of international sports events daily, Last Minute Mail took the sweat out of the bet for its members.

• Used extensive global network of contacts built over more than 20 years to identify the world’s best sports bets, irrespective of competition or location, supplying members with detailed last-minute information about 10-20 events weekly, with a minimum of one sports selection daily.
• Assessed 16-20 races weekly through the development of performance ratings, speed maps, and other analytical tools, published Friday newsletters previewing the weekend’s highest profile race in detail, and issued race-by-race synopses, including latest results, on Saturdays.
• Recorded remarkable profits across three years as Last Minute Mail’s Chief Intelligence Officer – a $1 unit stake on all of Last Minute Mail’s racing top picks, quinella picks, exacta picks, quadrella picks and sports top picks would have returned $51,279 for an outlay of $15,742.

Communications/Marketing/Media Consultant

markworwood.com

markworwood.com was a communications, marketing and media consultancy that specialised in servicing companies operating in the editorial, entertainment and sports spaces, with a particular focus on assisting enterprises in the highly competitive international wagering industry.

• Created communications, marketing and media materials for tomwaterhouse.com, with the subjects of those newsletters, promotions and releases being self-devised exclusive betting markets that delivered mainstream coverage and new clients to the bookmaker.
• Produced racing and sports betting editorial for niche online publishers based in Australia, Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, with the emphasis on driving traffic from their websites to bookmakers with which they had lucrative affiliate agreements.
• Managed the Australian launch of Norway-based social media and online dating business Digisec Media, collaborating with agencies on campaigns, generating mass coverage (for example, lead stories on news.com.au) through public relations surveys and acting as a spokesperson.

Product Evangelist

Macquarie University

Informatics is a business unit that creates an information technology leading edge for Macquarie University, its people designing, deploying and delivering great products and services to researchers, students and teachers to engender productivity, enjoyment and happiness.

• Launched numerous Informatics products, including BoardPad, DataSwitch, iLab, iLearn, iTeach, OneForge, OneVision, Tracker and Units, generating all the communications, marketing and media materials required to both educate and inform internal and external audiences.
• Conceptualised, organised and moderated three monthly events – Federation Forum (senior executives), Tech Talk (technology enthusiasts) and Informatics Town Hall (department colleagues) – that evangelised Informatics initiatives to Macquarie University personnel.
• Assisted Informatics staff, including the Chief Information Officer and the Product Manager, with the development and delivery of presentations, and worked with Macquarie University’s website team on the implementation of Informatics products pages for specific groups.

Head of Communications/Senior Bookmaker

tomwaterhouse.com

Tom Waterhouse was not born to be a footballer, win a major or wear the baggy green for Australia. But Tom was born to bet on any sport because he was born a Waterhouse. With four generations of betting knowledge in his blood, Tom does what he was born to do at tomwaterhouse.com.

• Developed the tomwaterhouse.com communications roadmap and implemented strategies as a member of its executive management team, including mentoring staff, liaising with agencies and writing the magazine article that led to its first television commercial.
• Devised, framed and traded all of tomwaterhouse.com’s novelty betting markets – everything from Dancing with the Stars and The X Factor to Black Caviar winning margins and Ian Thorpe comeback results – using them to generate mass media coverage.
• Managed all of tomwaterhouse.com’s communications, marketing and media activities, with areas of responsibility including advertising, customer relationship management, events, newsletters, social media, videos, websites and, of course, attention-seeking press releases.

Account Manager

Anne Wild & Associates

Anne Wild & Associates is a well-established and extremely successful Sydney-based boutique full-service public relations agency with a small stable of loyal clients and a large portfolio of high-profile campaigns under its belt that specialises in two streams – lifestyle/travel and business/innovation.

• Handled many Anne Wild & Associates accounts, including Australia’s largest provider of industry-based research, IBISWorld, the Singapore Tourism Board and Star Scientific, a company focused on using muon-catalysed fusion to deliver clean, safe and affordable energy.
• Provided services to the portfolio of Anne Wild & Associates clients, including community relations, copy writing, crisis communications, digital communications, event management, internal communications, media relations, social media, speech writing and strategic planning.
• Created Star Scientific’s website in conjunction with Mesa, designing it from scratch, writing all of its content in consultation with Star Scientific staff and producing videos that explain muon-catalysed fusion and its potential applications to people who do not hold physics degrees.

Media Manager

Sydney 2009 World Masters Games (IMGA)

The Sydney 2009 World Masters Games was the seventh edition of the world’s largest multi-sport event, a record 28,676 people from 95 countries competing across 28 sports at 72 venues and the New South Wales Government initiative delivering an economic benefit of $60.2 million.

• Formulated a comprehensive communications plan that ensured the Sydney 2009 World Masters Games exceeded its target of 25,000 local, national and international competitors and satisfied government stakeholders in spite of almost zero traditional marketing expenditure.
• Negotiated Sydney 2009 World Masters Games media partnerships with ABC Local Radio, Channel Nine and Nationwide News, a subsidiary of News Limited, and sourced most of the Sydney 2009 World Masters Games ambassadors, including seven Olympic champions.
• Conceived the idea of a World Masters Games oath as Sydney’s legacy item to the world’s largest multi-sport event, collaborating with best-selling Australian author Peter FitzSimons on the pledge that competitors will take at every staging of the competition moving forward.

Media Manager

Sydney FC

Sydney FC is Australia’s highest profile soccer side. Sydney FC was the first A-League team to win the OFC Champions League, the inaugural A-League Grand Final winner and it played a game versus David Beckham’s Los Angeles Galaxy that attracted a then record Australian crowd for a club match.

• Managed media operations at all of Sydney FC’s events, including home games – all of which were broadcast live on television domestically and internationally – multilingual press conferences, photo opportunities, player appearances and sponsorship announcements.
• Produced most of Sydney FC’s communications, marketing and media materials, including advertising copy, electronic newsletters, keynote speeches, press kits, press releases and promotional brochures, as well as running its official website in conjunction with Sportal.
• Boosted Sydney FC’s positive media coverage thanks to the development of strong working relationships with both internal and external parties, resulting in its average home attendance for A-League matches rising 9.2 per cent from the previous campaign despite several crises.

Media Manager/Senior Bookmaker

Centrebet (closed)

In 1996, Centrebet became the first southern hemisphere organisation to offer online betting. In 2002, Centrebet became the first non-TAB bookmaker in Australia to employ a Media Manager, a decision that played a major role in it floating in 2006 with a market capitalisation of $174 million.

• Circumvented draconian legislation to position Centrebet as the then best known and most highly regarded corporate online bookmaker in six countries, including Australia, using a mix of bookmaking, communications, marketing and media strategies.
• Devised, framed and traded all of Centrebet’s novelty betting markets – everything from the Australian Federal Election and the Nobel Peace Prize to Melbourne Cup winning margins and coach appointments – using them to generate mass media coverage.
• Replaced external agencies with internal communications, marketing and media operatives in Denmark, Finland, Germany, Norway and Sweden, directing their activities from Australia to meet Centrebet’s objectives in those markets at a fraction of the previous cost.

Chief Sports Betting Writer

Racing Post

British betting bible Racing Post is the world’s premier wagering publication and the United Kingdom’s only national daily racing/sports newspaper. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum set up Racing Post as a rival to The Sporting Life in 1986. By the late 1990s, Racing Post dominated the genre.

• Headhunted to become Racing Post’s Chief Sports Betting Writer, specialising in rugby league, rugby union and soccer, after completing academic studies and a two-month placement operating as a racing reporter between undergraduate and postgraduate courses.
• Edited Racing Post’s sports section on average once a week, attending editorial conferences, liaising with other departments – particularly advertising – and coordinating the output of up to a dozen staff members and freelancers to produce as many as 30 pages in one day.
• Covered countless big events, including the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France, the Rugby World Cup 1999 in the United Kingdom, France and Ireland, and the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games in Australia, and represented Racing Post on a variety of radio and television shows.

Racing/Sports Betting Broadcaster

BBC Radio

BBC Radio is a globally respected mass-media arm of the British Broadcasting Corporation, with its stations being national (for example, BBC Radio 5 Live), national regions (for example, BBC Radio Scotland), local (for example, BBC Radio Lancashire) and the international BBC World Service.

• Commissioned as a freelance racing/sports betting expert on a range of programs across BBC Radio, including Up All Night (BBC Radio 5 Live), Gary Hickson (BBC Radio Lancashire) and Sportsworld (BBC World Service), contributing to most of them on a weekly basis.

Racing/Sports Betting Broadcaster

L!VE TV (closed)

L!VE TV was a British cable television station, primarily aimed at the male 18-35 demographic, that Mirror Group Newspapers ran from 1995 to 1999. L!VE TV developed the world’s first-ever regular racing/sports betting show, Sports L!ve, broadcasting it live from London six nights a week.

• Employed as the resident pundit on L!VE TV’s Sports L!ve racing/sports betting program, attending production meetings, contributing ideas and co-hosting the program in a freelance deal that had Racing Post’s blessing because of its cross-promotional benefits.

News/Sports Broadcaster

BRMB/XTRAam (Free Radio Birmingham)

BRMB and XTRAam were sister independent radio stations based in the English city of Birmingham. Both BRMB and XTRAam broadcast music alongside local news and information, with chart and contemporary hits dominating BRMB’s playlist and XTRAam playing mostly golden oldies.

• Operated as a freelance news reporter across Birmingham and the Black Country, plus as a soccer commentator/reporter covering Aston Villa, Birmingham City, Coventry City, Walsall, West Bromwich Albion and Wolverhampton Wanderers.

News/Sports Broadcaster

Beacon Radio/WABC (Free Radio Shropshire/Black Country)

With offices in the English town of Shrewsbury and the English city of Wolverhampton, Beacon Radio and WABC were sister independent radio stations. Both Beacon Radio and WABC broadcast local news and information alongside their music programming on the FM and AM bands respectively.

• Functioned as a freelance news reporter across Shropshire and the Black Country, as well as a soccer commentator/reporter covering Aston Villa, Birmingham City, Shrewsbury Town, Walsall, West Bromwich Albion and Wolverhampton Wanderers.

PGDip Broadcast Journalism

University of Central Lancashire

Broadcast Journalism Training Council-accredited course at one of the United Kingdom’s premier communications schools whose modules included radio journalism, television journalism, media law, Teeline shorthand and a three-week internship with a professional organisation.

Graduate Development Program

British Horseracing Board (British Horseracing Authority)

Scholarship holder on an initiative that has launched the careers of many racing professionals, spending two weeks at the British Racing School learning from the best in the industry before embarking on a two-month placement at Racing Post operating as a racing reporter.

BA (Hons) Psychology with Public Media

Trinity and All Saints College (Leeds Trinity)

Joint honours degree at Trinity and All Saints College, a media-centric arm of the University of Leeds, that included two six-week attachments with external groups, after obtaining AAC grades in three A-level subjects: Economics (A), General Studies (A) and Pure Mathematics and Statistics (C).