BetMakers and evoke Extend Their Partnership as Betting’s Technology Arms Race Accelerates

Tier-one operators are quietly making a decision about racing they don’t talk about much. They are choosing not to build it themselves.

BetMakers Technology Group has confirmed a long-term extension of its partnership with evoke plc, keeping the supplier’s RaceOdds platform running across the group’s racing wagering operations. The brands involved are not minor names. William Hill and 888 will continue to price and trade racing through RaceOdds, the product BetMakers previously took to market as Price Manager.

What the RaceOdds Renewal Actually Covers

RaceOdds is the engine behind a lot of racing books most punters never think about. It handles automated pricing, trading and risk management across thoroughbred, harness and greyhound racing. For an operator running books across multiple territories, that automation is the difference between covering a full racing card profitably and quietly capping the markets they can’t staff.

This is a managed solution, not just software handed over with a manual. BetMakers prices and traded the markets on behalf of the operator. That distinction matters, and it sits at the centre of why this deal is more interesting than a routine contract renewal.

Build It In-House or Outsource It: Why Operators Are Choosing Specialist Racing Traders 

Racing is expensive to trade well. It needs specialist heads, deep data, and round-the-clock coverage across jurisdictions that all run to different rules and timezones. Building that internally is a serious cost line, and it only gets heavier as an operator adds markets.

So the calculation has shifted. For a brand like William Hill, racing is a heritage product the audience expects, but it is not necessarily where the group wants to spend its scarcest trading talent. Handing the pricing engine to a specialist frees that talent for sports and verticals where in-house control drives more margin. BetMakers COO Martin Tripp framed the renewal as proof of evoke’s confidence in the supplier’s ability to support enterprise-scale operators across multiple jurisdictions. evoke’s Director of Racing, Mark Howarth, said the product gives the group the adaptability, automation and scale it needs across every territory it operates in. 

Read between those two statements and the real message is operational. Racing trading is becoming a function operators are comfortable not owning.

The Operator Takeaway, and the Catch

If you run racing product strategy, the signal here is straightforward. Retaining a tier-one brand on a long-term deal tells you the outsourced model has cleared the trust threshold with the most demanding customers. That is the proof point your own build-versus-buy conversation has been waiting for.

The catch is dependency. Outsourcing your pricing engine means your racing margins, customer experience and uptime now rest on a supplier’s delivery. That risk is manageable, but it does not disappear, and it hands real bargaining power to whoever sits on the other side of the contract. 

Future Outlook for Racing Technology Suppliers

Expect more of this. As cost pressure tightens across regulated markets through the rest of 2026, racing is the obvious candidate for outsourcing because it is resource-heavy and rarely a brand’s primary growth driver. The suppliers who can prove delivery at enterprise scale, as BetMakers just has with evoke, will keep winning renewals while operators redirect headcount to higher-margin fights.

Source: BetMakers