Forum Topics RTH RTH CEO Meeting

Pinned straw:

Added 2 months ago

Following the chat with Stephen, I can see why RTH has been trending up the Strawman rankings. Super interesting business...

Let us count the ways:

  • Global leader with no obvious direct competitor, servicing the largest players in the industry
  • Highly sticky customer base (never lost a major client in 25 years), with substantial switching costs
  • Significant barriers to entry (regulatory, key relationships with data originators)
  • Fast growing sector
  • Significant revenue growth with early signs of effective scaling
  • Sound balance sheet, no debt and >$5m cash (Stephen said they were unlikely to need additional capital)
  • Successful expansion into foreign jurisdictions
  • Founder family run (Stephen's dad started the business, and has a 17% stake)
  • Stephen is independently a successful entrepreneur, having had a 8-figure exit on his consulting tech business
  • Offering is mission critical for clients
  • Largely recession proof business
  • Contracts linked to CPI (so somewhat inflation proof)
  • Virtually all revenue is recurring in nature
  • Access to data gives them a genuine edge in terms of AI
  • 80% gross margins


The negatives seem to be one of regulation and negative perception of online wagering. Personally, I'm not a fan of some of the apps that push gambling but it's hard to imagine that the industry would be blacklisted in any serious way (if only because of the tax it generates). Actually, Stephen mentioned tax as a potential worry -- maybe the governments in the jurisdictions they operate in decide to levy higher taxes?

But, on balance, it seems pretty interesting. Especially with shares on only ~35x earnings, which isn't that high given compound top line growth of 39%pa, on average, over the last few years. Especially if they can continue to flex their cost base with greater efficiency.

I am adding a small position on SM. (Sadly, I have no spare funds in real life)

Anyway, here is the transcript: RTH Transcript.pdf

mushroompanda
Added 2 months ago

Another great chat in the bag @Strawman! (insert DJ Khaled gif) It was fantastic to dig deeper into what “data services” actually is, how sticky the products are, areas that could be considered competitive advantages, and also some potential network effects.

Being relatively familiar with the name, here are my key takeaways / reinforcements from the conversation:

  • Racing authority software could evolve into a fourth pillar. This was mentioned during the annual results presentation and came up several times again today. At present, RAS provides software systems for the Greyhound Board of Great Britain (GBGB) and recently secured a win with the Mauritius Turf Club to bring racing back to the island nation.
  • RAS is a technology company at its core. Stephen himself is from a technology background. The company has both the talent and expertise internally to build, iterate, and pursue new opportunities across the racing ecosystem. Every potential acquisition and partnership is viewed through the lens of “can we just build it ourselves?”
  • Stephen is young, energetic, ambitious, and not running RAS in "business as usual" way. He’s constantly pursuing opportunities and taking calculated bets. You get the sense that if the appropriate opportunity comes across his plate, he won’t hesitate to take a big swing.

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UncleWally
Added 2 months ago

What a great interview @Strawman.

Enjoyed this one in particular, I’m interested in adding to my IRL and SM holding after today’s interview, as you said “Nothing like a bit of confirmation bias”.

Stephen was articulate in his discussions with you and I liked what I heard.

A fast growing, profitable, world leading Aussie Tech company, early in it’s journey with network effects and strong insider ownership, what’s not to like!

Thanks also to @Wini for sharing his knowledge and thoughts on Mereweather Capital’s Blog back in March 2025

Held IRL and on SM.

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jcmleng
Added 2 months ago

Great chat @Strawman, still working my way through it. Notes will follow, but here are the few lines around RTH's moat that I was looking for to lock in my bubbling conviction:

Have the largest database of racing data in the planet, not just raw data but curated, normalised and standardised data for global racing

  • Can rate a horse that runs anywhere in the planet against any other horse that runs anywhere on the planet, in a format and consistency of quality that can be used to generate further products from
  • Lots of complexity, data points and data acquisition to get this data
  • Subscription-based, very sticky, long-standing, lifeline of bookmakers and platform providers - its how they get and keep their customers and how betting transactions are initiated
  • Same with stock investing - use data to make betting decisions 
  • Product is best in market globally - product that keeps customers, customers coming back


Was a bit impatient and opened a starter 0.68% IRL this morning at $0.96, position in SM is pending. As my conviction is now firmly in place, prefer to lock in a starter position, then average down/up along the way as the case may be. Not that easy to get reasonable selling volumes, so need to be patient to have orders filled, and have to accept that not all will be fulfilled at the pricfe that I am after.

Disc: Now Held IRL, Pending in SM

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Wini
Added 2 months ago

Agree with others, this was a great interview @Strawman. Potentially an hour (with bonus time!) of confirmation bias for myself but I thought you did a great job of taking Steve back to basics and really digging into the core questions of any business; what value do you provide for your customer and how likely is competition (including customers in-sourcing your services) to dislodge you? Every company will say "lots" and "not much" like Steve did, but I thought he provided great context for why it is the case for RTH.

Ultimately though, it is easier to believe, because you see the revenue growth you'd expect to see:

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Blatant plug but I also jumped on Coffee Microcaps with Mark Tobin and chatted about RTH (and MXO): https://youtu.be/SqWboZKOkfU?si=tPTjrfKoqJh0v7a3

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Strawman
Added 2 months ago

Just finished watching your discussion with Mark on RAS @Wini. That combined with the excellent notes posted on here from @jcmleng @mushroompanda and others has definitely piqued my interest.

All that being said, we need someone to throw some cold water on this! All the mutual praise is nice, but we may group think our way into a mistake... What are some negatives?

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Schwerms
Added 2 months ago

Global equine influenza kills all the horses?

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twee
Added a month ago

Perhaps that horse racing betting is more a mature persons pursuit and is in decline. Further, younger customers may desire different betting products that don't require data services. The picklebet example shows this in a way, but they have also managed to retain them as customers.

The other angle on horse racing is animal welfare. As Stephen says the industry is not great at singing it's own praises. Recently, greyhound racing has been banned in New Zealand. A ban on horse racing, while much more unlikely due to its stronger roots in local communities, is not inconceivable. RSCPA has strong views against horse racing.

The Hong Kong acquisition is also not without risk. Even thought they employed a experienced and connected local you are operating in a jurisdiction you know little about and there are many ways to fail.

Another, generic risk, is they do a bad acquisition.

That's a pretty weak effort, love a more steelman list!

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Wini
Added 2 weeks ago

https://sbcnews.co.uk/features/interviews/2025/11/17/racing-and-sports/

Interview with RTH's Director of UK/Europe which goes into some nice detail on their product offering and the value they provide to customers.

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