Race Night Hire in England

Tom Mehew - Premier Race Night Operator provides Charity & Corporate Race Nights throughout East Midlands and East Anglia in accordance with Covid19 guidelines. Read on for more information plus very useful advice on hiring a similar provider for your event.

What do you need to know from an organiser in order to provide a comprehensive quote?

To enable us to give you a quotation we need to know your requirements. Type of event- Charity, Corporate, Private Party etc, number of guests attending, type of Indoor venue. Whether you need us to handle the betting system using our computerised tote system with operators, or whether you want to man it yourself with the old fashioned paper tote tickets. Size of screen 6ft or large 9ftx12ft or if the venue has one, and the number of races required. During the present Pandemic is the venue Covid19 compliant?

What advice would you give to a customer looking to hire a provider in your area of work?

Ask if Race Nights is their main activity, the number of years experience, details of any site that they can see reviews from previous groups. Enquire whether the provider does all the work on the evening or whether the organisers has to help. Check what the fee includes, because some providers charge a basic fee and then add on extras, and even take a percentage of the take on the night (this is illegal). What insurance cover they have Public Liability etc., type of projection equipment. During the present Pandemic do they have protection screens etc. in accordance with Government guidelines.

Please tell us a little bit about how and why you started the business.

Tom Mehew (premierracenight.co.uk) was started over 33yrs ago with the old 16mm projectors and big reel 16mm films, with small grainy type picture and limited sound, raising funds for Village Youth club. Requests then came in from other organisations etc. and so the business has developed over the years, with updating the equipment to keep pace with modern technology. I personally supervise/compere all events and moving on from the old paper tote system, we now have laptops that take all the bets, instantly calculate pay-out with barcode security, so only winning tickets are validated. The tote is manned by experienced smartly dressed staff. Expanded from just a race night we now include Jackpot 7, Fun game of unusual bingo, Tricast. In addition to Charities & Fundraising organisations, we also tailor-make our evening for Corporate, Private, Family birthdays, Wedding Anniversaries, Christmas parties.

Please tell us about a booking you've had through Add to Event, how did it go? Would you recommend us to others?

Several bookings have come via Add to Event from new clients who have been impressed with the reviews I have received over the years.
One recent one that is one I did at Nottingham for a special celebration for a Nottingham Ice Panthers player. The organiser hadn't done a race night before, so relied on me giving him all the information he needed to have a successful night. On the night we turned up on time, set up all the equipment before the audience arrived. Liaised with the Organiser about what his plan was for the evening, and he said he would leave everything to us. Due to the main projection room not been very big and the number of people attending, we set-up the computerised tote system in an adjacent room. Opened the tote half an hour before the event was due to start, so people could place their bets on the first race or all the races in advance of the first race if they wished. With this been a new group and a new venue, I was a little apprehensive before the event. Once the audience arrives, bets started to flow, races chosen the evening flowed with no issue. Afterwards, the organiser commented how impressed he was with the way we ran the evening, especially with the runners and riders and tote pay-outs displayed on the big screen. The venue was also impressed because the race night operators they have had before, they have had to do most of the work on the night, like tote etc... Look forward to a repeat booking......