MARK WORWOOD

Senior Production Editor (Racing)

South China Morning Post

Founded in 1903, the English-language South China Morning Post – and its Sunday edition, the Sunday Morning Post – is Hong Kong’s most trusted media organisation and unofficial newspaper of record, with more than 130 million unique visitors to its news website in the past 12 months.

• Produce – write, edit and lay out – racing content, which includes 16-page pullouts for weekend meetings and 12-page guides for midweek cards, as one of the two-person team that covers the city’s most popular sport and one of its highest-profile organisations, the Hong Kong Jockey Club.
• Broke this season’s top racing story – Purton slams chief steward’s ‘new standard’: ‘it isn’t going to be sustainable’ – that has engaged readers for not only more minutes than any unsponsored sports story during my tenure but also 25 per cent more time than any other racing article.

External Media Communications Manager

WA Police Union

The WA Police Union provides industrial, legal and welfare services to nearly 7,000 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.

• Managed all the union’s communications, including media relations (promoting and protecting the union and its members, one of whom stood trial for murder) official publications (from editing the union magazine to building its Switch Off Duty website) and political liaison activities (all parties).
• Framed the union’s 2021 annual conference around a mental health theme to launch its Switch Off Duty campaign, sourced the keynote speaker – Glenn Mitchell – with the highest-ever post-event approval rating from delegates and added a popular comedy night to the program.

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 original thoroughbred racing festival that featured a Group One race worth at least $1 million on three consecutive Saturdays – the Railway Stakes, the Winterbottom Stakes and the Kingston Town Classic.
• 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 in the spring and resulted in four consecutive years of record-breaking nominations, visitors and runners.
• 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 benefitted affiliates by a seven-figure sum annually.
• Brokered the club’s TABtouch mobile wagering deal – and, by association, the arrangement for every other Western Australian racing industry entity – that meant the rapidly rising revenue stream, which TABtouch did not attribute to clubs previously, flowed to them.
• 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 on-course audio-visual mix.
• Presented the club’s preview program, The Box Seat, teamed up with Brittany Taylor to create the club’s review show, The Run of the Race, and administered the club’s social media pages, growing their audience to more than 45,000 people, which was 20 times its membership.
• Devised, designed and delivered Perth Racing at Home, a password-protected streaming service that enabled the club’s members and, subsequently, via a commercial contract, registered owners to watch preliminaries, races and replays during the coronavirus pandemic.
• Managed special projects, including introducing Good Friday racing to Australia in 2017, booking Ascot Racecourse’s first female race caller, Canadian commentator Dawn Lupul, for International Women’s Day in 2020 and honouring many of Western Australia’s greatest gallopers with races.

Chief Intelligence Officer

Last Minute Mail (closed)

Last Minute Mail was Australia’s premier subscription-based racing and sports betting advisory service, covering domestic racing events weekly and international sports competitions daily.

• Assessed 16-20 Australian races weekly through the creation of performance ratings, speed maps and other tools and used an extensive global network of contacts developed over more than 20 years to identify the world’s best sports wagers, irrespective of competition or location, daily.
• Generated independently verified outstanding profits across three years of running Last Minute Mail’s offering – a $1 unit stake on all of its 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 and 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.

• Managed the Australian launch of Norway-based social media and online dating business Digisec Media, collaborating with agencies on campaigns, generating mass coverage through public relations surveys (including multiple news.com.au top stories) and acting as a spokesperson.
• Produced racing and sports betting editorial for niche online publishers based in Australia, Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, with an emphasis on driving traffic from their websites to bookmakers with which they had lucrative affiliate agreements.

Product Evangelist

Macquarie University

Informatics is a business unit that creates an information technology leading edge for Macquarie University, designing, deploying and delivering great products and services.

• 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.

Head of Communications

tomwaterhouse.com

Tom was not born to be a footballer, win a major or wear the baggy green. But with four generations of betting knowledge in his blood, Tom was born to bet because he was born a Waterhouse.

• Developed the tomwaterhouse.com communications roadmap and implemented strategies as a member of its launch-time executive management team, including mentoring staff, liaising with agencies and ghost-writing the article that led to its first television commercial, In The Blood.
• Directed 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 highly successful Sydney-based boutique full-service public relations agency that specialises in two streams – lifestyle/travel and business/innovation.

• Handled several 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.

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.

• Formulated and executed a bold communications plan that ensured the Sydney 2009 World Masters Games exceeded its target of 25,000 competitors, satisfied stakeholders despite almost zero traditional marketing expenditure and delivered an economic benefit of $60.2 million.
• Negotiated Sydney 2009 World Masters Games media partnerships with ABC Local Radio, Channel Nine and Nationwide News (News Limited), sourced most of its ambassadors, including seven Olympic champions, and conceived the idea of a Games oath as Sydney’s legacy item.

Media Manager

Sydney FC

Sydney FC is Australia’s highest-profile soccer side. Set up in 2004, Sydney FC was the first A-League team to win the OFC Champions League and the inaugural A-League Grand Final winner.

• 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.
• 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

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.

• Circumvented draconian legislation to position Centrebet as the then biggest and best corporate online bookmaker in six countries – Australia, Denmark, Finland, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden – using a mix of bookmaking, communications, marketing and media strategies.
  Introduced novelty betting to Australia – initially, the Northern Territory Government would sanction markets on television shows, political elections and the like on a case-by-case basis – and played a key role in Centrebet floating in 2006 with a market capitalisation of $174 million.

Chief Sports Betting Writer

Racing Post

London-based Racing Post is the world’s premier wagering publication. In 1986, Sheikh Mohammed set up Racing Post as a rival to The Sporting Life. By the late 1990s, Racing Post dominated the genre.

• Covered countless major 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 programs.
  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.

PGDip Broadcast Journalism

University of Central Lancashire

Broadcast Journalism Training Council course at one of the United Kingdom’s top communications schools. Modules included radio journalism, television journalism, media law and Teeline shorthand.

Graduate Development Program

British Horseracing Board (British Horseracing Authority)

Exclusive course – more than 1,700 applicants for 17 scholarships – that begins with two weeks of learning from the best at the British Racing School and ends with two months of work experience.

BA (Hons) Psychology with Public Media

Trinity and All Saints College (Leeds Trinity)

Joint honours undergraduate course at a media-centric college of the University of Leeds. Earned place through AAC grades at A-Level: Economics (A), General Studies (A) and Mathematics (C).