Hire the venue
If you have your own club, bar or hall then this is ideal. Bear in mind, however, that you are hoping to attract a good size audience and that they will need a reasonable amount of room to move around in order to place bets. There also has to be space for a large screen with a relatively clear space down the centre for a projector. If you are hiring a venue for your race night; this will need to reflect your potential audience size
It's a good idea to either arrange a bar for the evening if the venue doesn't have one or, if that's not possible, remind people to bring their own drinks. Many race nights have a break for food during the evening. Fish and chips is a popular choice; a buffet also works well.
The venue needs to be available at least an hour before your guests arrive to allow time to set up.
If you're struggling to find a venue, give us a call - we've run thousands of events all over the country, so we might be able to help out or make some suggestions.
Book the race night
We provide films, projection and sound equipment, large screen and compere. We can also supply staff to take bets, although this can easily be done by your own volunteers.
It is important to book well in advance. Saturdays during peak months (Feb/Mar, Oct/Nov) are booked up very early.
Make sure you check our availability before you book the venue.
Find an audience
In theory, the larger the audience, the more money you should make on the evening, but this is not always the case. If the room is too crowded, or you end up with long queues for the betting, you may not make as much. Most race nights have between 50 and 100 guests. If you hope to attract more than 100 guests, you will usually need to book larger or multiple screens. An event with 200+ guests requires considerable planning. Let us know if you're planning a large event, we have lots of experience with major events, but the earlier we know about it the more we can help.
Ask the experts
If you are organising your first race night, or perhaps even your first fundraising event, you probably have lots of questions.
We're always on the end of the phone to answer your queries, so get in touch as often as you like.