In conversation with: Jason Scott, the new CEO of Racing Queensland

In late April, Racing Queensland announced its new CEO as Jason Scott, whose name was known around the wagering traps of Ladbrokes and BetMGM.

It was an interesting appointment. Scott was a straight-shooting, good-talking, no-nonsense fellow with an expert aptitude for numbers, but he’d need a lot more than that to handle Queensland’s three codes of racing.

Scott was to take the position of the outgoing Brendan Parnell, who had overseen Racing Queensland since 2018 and who had been an “energetic and dynamic leader”. They were big shoes to fill in what many might call an invidious job, and reactions to Scott's appointment were mixed.

“I had texts from people I’d known for a long time, asking why in the hell I’d want to do it,” he said, speaking to TDN AusNZ. “I had plenty congratulating me and plenty more telling me I was what’s needed in here. I also had people telling me I was wasting my time, that I couldn’t change anything. It was probably a perfect microcosm of the racing industry.”

As we sit down to chat with Scott, he's in the job just a month. It’s early days to be judging how he might go, but he already cuts a different cloth.

He has energy, confidence and approachability, and he’s quick to point out what he brings to the role of Racing Queensland CEO, but he's equally quick to point out what he doesn’t.

“The fact that I understand racing will help me,” he said. “I’ve got some really strong points in that I understand racing ops… I can talk to trainers, I can talk to jockeys.

“Where I have very little experience is building $100 million pieces of infrastructure, such as the greyhound and harness tracks we’re currently building. I have very little experience and influence in government, so they’re the bits I need to learn.”

Scott’s ability to admit his shortcomings is commendable, considering the weight of experience he brings to the role of CEO. He has served as the CEO of Ladbrokes Australia, and was the Vice President of Trading, VIP and Retail Operations for BetMGM, which took him to America for a tick under four years.

But even in an appointment as far-reaching as CEO of Racing Queensland, which probably requires a bit of ‘jack of all trades’ in its appointee, Scott is highly qualified because he understands the critical elements of industry and wagering.

“I think I understand what race clubs need, and what participants want,” he said. “Those are the skills I have and the skills I’m strong at, and I’m probably the complete opposite to the previous CEO, but that often tends to happen.

“When we see a change in senior management, we tend to look at areas where the predecessor wasn’t so strong, and I’m sure when I move on, we’ll probably have someone come in with a completely different set of skills to mine.”

Scott acknowledges that Parnell was an excellent predecessor. In fact, the outgoing CEO told him it was a good job, that he’d have complete autonomy. Scott accepted the role knowing it would spell a huge change to his working life, which before this had been in private enterprise.

“I didn’t come into it naïve,” he said. “At a very young age in my career, some time in my early 20s, I had a role where after 12 months I was thinking how easy it was after believing the first two weeks I’d never get the hang of it. I’ve been able to recall that when I start new roles now, so that initially, it does seem incredibly vast and complicated. But the further you get into it, the more natural it becomes.

“I’m nowhere near the point yet where I’m comfortable, but I’m certainly more comfortable than where I was four weeks ago when I started.”

The bureaucracy of the position probably doesn’t suit him, and he’ll be the first to admit it. But Scott seems to think he doesn’t need to be bureaucratic to execute his role brilliantly.

“People who know my temperament know that I like to make decisions and I like to move quickly, and when we’ve decided as a leadership group to go somewhere, I like to implement it and move on,” he said. “That’s a challenge for me, to temper my natural instincts, and anyone that has ever worked with me will tell you that I’m the least bureaucratic person in every room I’m in. But I’m learning.”

Roots manoeuvre

Scott is married with two children. He and his family has lived in Brisbane since 2004, just a hop from headquarters in downtown Deagon.

However, his formative years were spent in Sydney, where he grew up and went to Epping Boys High, “Basically a very middle-class area of Sydney at the time, although it’s changed a bit now.”

His parents enjoyed a day at the races as much as anyone, which is where his interest in horse racing emerged.

“My father was always a punter and owned a few horses,” Scott said. “I remember going to the races from about six years old, out there as a family at Randwick, so I had an interest all the way through in betting, primarily. Part of that was through my dad, but it was always something I was particularly interested in.”

An aptitude with numbers was very evident in this young kid, something that has stuck with him throughout his adult life.

“I’m much more numerically literate than writing-literate,” he said. “Numbers come easily to me, which is part of analysing races, understanding odds and understanding wagering in business.

“I ended up in the finance markets after school, basically investing people’s superannuation. I did that for about eight years before deciding that I wanted to work in the wagering industry.”

Scott’s first entry into the wagering field was with Humbleton, the largest betting syndicate in the world of racing. Much has been written of Humbleton over the years, which was founded by Hobart-born enigma Zeljko Ranogajec. For Scott, the transition from finance into wagering was an experience in the polar-opposites that career moves can bring.

“It was completely different to what I was used to, and it required a completely different skill set,” he said. “But I found the betting syndicates, and their ways of going about things, much more fascinating that finance.”

Scott had found his groove, which led him to his later senior roles with Ladbrokes Australia and BetMGM. They’ve been high-rolling jobs, particularly the latter, which took him around 28 American states during his three-year term. He’s worked with betting markets in Europe, America, Asia and South Africa, and it was a career he has loved.

“I went to America in late 2019,” Scott said. “I was supposed to be there for three months before COVID marched in, and I worked through the next three-and-a-half years there, predominantly in Las Vegas and New Jersey.

“America is a great place. They do some things so well, and others so poorly. It’s the most complex society in terms of the haves versus have nots, rich versus poor, opportunity versus lack of opportunity. I had a good line on America by the time I was ready to finish up, which was prior to this role coming up with Racing Queensland.”

Keeping everyone happy

It comes with the territory that Scott will have to answer the hard questions as CEO of one of Australia’s principal racing authorities (PRAs). He doesn’t seem to shirk many things though.

“The tricky bit of this job is the complex nature of the role,” he said. “Having three codes that we cross, and having that whole group of different participants with different agendas, goals and needs, that’s the challenge.

“I don’t think it’s unfair to say that racing people have more conflicts of interest than in any other industry. If you’re talking to someone as an owner, that person can also be a breeder or a punter, and they’ll have opinions on all three. What we need to do at Racing Queensland is to take those stakeholder opinions into account and come to the conclusion of what is best for the majority.”

Queensland, like Tasmania and Western Australia, manages all three of its racing codes under the one roof. It’s a complex web, but Scott doesn’t see it that way.

“Basically, Racing Queensland collects money from either of two places,” he said. “Wagering revenue or government grants, with point of consumption tax really part of wagering revenue. We then have to distribute that the best way possible.

“Sixty per cent of our money goes to prizemoney and a bit over 20 per cent goes to the clubs to put on the show, so all we have to do is distribute that money, working out where it’s best-placed that maximises the ability of all participants to earn a wage, keep buying horses and continue racing in Queensland.”

Scott admitted that it can be hugely difficult achieving this over-simplified angle on things. He said handing money to one code, one track or one club can be negative to someone else who sees that they’re not getting that money.

“It’s very complicated,” he said. “And particularly when we have certain pieces of infrastructure that we’re involved in, be it new lights or surfaces, because you can’t keep all people happy at all times, and I came in knowing that. I came in knowing that if I gave money to greyhound clubs, the trots and harness guys will think I’ve given them too much. And if I give money to the BRC, the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast will think I’ve given them too much. If I give money to Cairns, Townsville will want to know where theirs is.

“That’s just the game and I knew it when I walked in, but that’s for me and my leadership team to handle to the best of our ability.”

Scott said there are 124 race clubs and 120 racetracks in Queensland. It’s a vast territory.

“No other state has that many tracks and, with the exception of Western Australia, no other state has the land size,” he said. “We believe at Racing Queensland that having that many tracks, and the majority are for thoroughbreds, is where the next Peter Moody is coming from, or the next champion jockeys.

“We’re committed to these 124 clubs and we’ve probably lost seven or eight in the last five years through natural causes, where they just weren’t sustainable. And it’s hard these days.

“Volunteerism is almost a thing of the past, both in the city and in the regions, and a lot of these tracks rely on volunteers when it comes to the committees and facilities. That’s the challenge in 2023 that possibly wasn’t there in 2003.”

On state unity

The elephant in the room is the current discontent between the Australian PRAs, which is spewing out headlines every other week. It will be in Scott’s face throughout his tenure as CEO, and he didn’t shy from it when we raised its ugly head.

“I know many people in Racing Victoria and I know Andrew Jenkins, who is in exactly the same role as me in Tasmania in that’s he taken over all three codes,” Scott said. “As head of Ladbrokes I was dealing with Racing NSW, so I know Peter (V’Landys) and I know Graeme Hinton (Racing NSW COO).

“So I’m probably in a different position where I’ve come into this with a different lens on things. It’s not lost on me how important it is to have a very strong Racing Australia, and that’s imperative. The states need to get together.”

At the moment, the court case between Racing NSW and the remaining PRAs is a headline issue, and it’s a serious one. Scott acknowledged it was but with a caveat.

“Although the racing organisations are currently involved in this legal case, Jason Scott personally isn’t and I don’t need to get involved,” he said. “I hope I can be part of the solution once we get through this and fix it up because we need all six states and two territories pushing in the same direction.”