About Us
Racingweb, with Alec Hogg and Charl Pretorius.
CONTACT US:
OFFICE: +27 11 344 8600 (Melrose Arch, Johannesburg).
MAIL:
info@freeracer.co.za (Charl); alec@moneyweb.co.za (Alec)
calvin@moneyweb.co.za (Calvin, technical support).
WE welcome you to the new racingweb.co.za, an exciting venture in which Charl Pretorius’ groundbreaking freeracer.co.za joins forces with Alec Hogg’s well established and Listed, Moneyweb Holdings.
It is interesting that Alec approached Charl a few weeks before the launch of freeracer.co.za, in October 2007, proposing a joint venture. But the headstrong freeracer wanted to give it bash on his own and while the site became an overnight success, it grew at a rate much faster than expected and Charl simply couldn’t keep up.
“I am very proud of what was achieved with freeracer, which topped 2,6 million hits and 20 000 individual visitors in September 2008, making it the biggest predominantly horseracing site in South Africa.”
Freeracer ventured into the mainstream media by bringing on board ace columnist David Bullard and expanding the site to include sections for leisure and sport, which brought plenty of visitors but no advertorial support.
Charl Pretorius comments: “The problem with growing so big so fast was that the site visitors quickly become hungry for more. They get their morning fix when logging on but want more by midday. As a sole operator I couldn’t keep up with fresh and exciting news and when Alec repeated his offer to help I was ready for a deal.
“Alec is a step-by-step man and we have undoubtedly come together at the right time after a spell in which I had to learn internet marketing and website hosting on my own, the hard way.”
Charl’s friendship with Alec goes back to the early 1990s, when he and journalist Byron Kennedy were members of Alec’s editorial staff on the legendary Racing Digest.
“Those were golden days laid the foundation for my career and it really is amazing how the wheel turns. But things happen at the right time and here we are, fully focused and positioned to deliver a true 21st century horseracing website.”
Racingweb.co.za will be going through a variety of development phases and a lot of work has already been done behind the scenes by Calvin Ntombela and Hilton Tarrant. We constantly investigate and put into practice the best ways of bringing racing information and sports betting news to the betting public.
We are also still in the process of bringing across many of the great articles from freeracer.co.za for archiving on racingweb. Meanwhile enoy our trademark - racing journalism not found elswhere and breaking news stories!
We have already relaunched the the popular freeracer podcast and Club Racingweb is also on its way.
Meantime, racingwebbers, come and sign up to our weekly newsletter, join the new Racingweb Live Talk, build the new Racingweb Community and keep us entertained while we put in place the features of racingweb that will delight and inform you.
Warm regards,
The Racingweb Team.