Codere, a Spanish gaming company with a presence in eight countries, has added to its portfolio by securing a 30-year contract through the company HRU to manage and revitalize Las Piedras Racetrack in Uruguay. Codere owns a 50% stake in HRU, which also owns and operates Maroñas Racetrack in Montevideo, Uruguay.
The $10 million project becomes the seventh operation in Codere’s Thoroughbred racing division, which also includes tracks in Brazil, Mexico, and Panama. The company plans to recondition the base and adjust the width of the actual racetrack while improving the drainage system, and will renovate the main grandstand and surrounding facilities. The project is expected to create 250 to 300 jobs.
Codere, based in Madrid, Spain, has 20,000 employees and currently administers over 55,000 gaming machines, 186 gaming rooms, and 898 betting outlets in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Spain, Italy, Mexico, Panama, and Uruguay. It also is involved in Internet gaming in Italy and Spain.
Codere director of operations Ramon Rionda called the Uruguay contract another positive step in the growth of Thoroughbred racing in Latin America.
“This is a wonderful opportunity for our company to expand its operating base and also to have a meaningful impact on racing throughout Latin America,” he said.
In addition to Las Piedras and Maroñas in Uruguay, Codere is involved in ownership at Hipódromo de las Americas in Mexico City and Hipódromo Presidente Remon in Panama, and also has management agreements with Jockey Club Brasileiro (Gavea Race Track) in Rio de Janeiro, Jockey Club do Parana in Curitiba, and Jockey Club do Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
Rionda said Maroñas racetrack will host racing and also serve as a training site during construction at Las Piedras. The main oval in Uruguay, Maroñas was Codere's first incursion into the racino model of racing viewed as one of the most modern in Latin America, with an exclusive simulcasting system of races in Europe, North America, and Latin America.