Privacy Policy

Last updated: 29 September 2026

This Privacy Policy explains how The Sporting Base handles your personal information when you use our website at https://thesportingbase.com, our iOS and Android apps, our email newsletters, competitions and other services (together, our Services).

“The Sporting Base”, “TSB”, “we”, “us” and “our” mean The Sporting Base Pty Ltd (ABN 39 652 369 545).

We are bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs). This policy is our APP privacy policy. It also serves as our collection notice under APP 5.

If you have any questions, contact us using the details in the “Contact us” section at the end of this policy.

1. The short version

We collect the details you give us, such as when you create an account, add horses to your Black Book, enter a competition, subscribe to our newsletter or contact us.
We, and advertising and analytics partners such as Google, Meta, X and Taboola, also collect information automatically using cookies, pixels, SDKs and similar technologies. This helps us measure our audience, show ads, pay for our free content and improve our Services.
We use Google Analytics 4 with Google’s Advertising Features turned on. These are Google signals, demographics and interests reporting, and a link to Google Ads. We use them to understand our audience in aggregate. For example, we may tell a sponsor that a certain share of our audience is aged 25–34 or interested in horse racing. We never give sponsors information that identifies you.
Some of our providers are overseas, mainly in the United States.
You can opt out of personalised ads and analytics. You can also ask to see or correct your information, or make a complaint. Section 12 and sections 14–16 explain how.
Our Services are only for people aged 18 or over.

2. Kinds of personal information we collect

Information you give us

Account details. When you register on the website or in the app, we collect your name, email address, username, password (stored in encrypted/hashed form), and any other profile details you choose to give us.
Black Book and preferences. This covers the horses, jockeys, trainers or races you follow, your notification settings, and your favourite sports or teams.
Competitions and tipping. This covers your entries, tips, results and leaderboard position (your username may appear publicly on leaderboards). If you win a cash prize, we also collect the details needed to verify your identity, age and eligibility and to pay you, such as your bank account details and country of residence.
Newsletter. This is your email address and your subscription preferences. We use a third-party email service provider to deliver newsletters.
Contact and enquiry forms. This covers your first and last name, email address, phone number and message. It also covers advertising enquiries.
Comments. If you comment on an article, we collect your name, email address, any website you enter, your comment, and your IP address and browser details (used for spam detection).

Information collected automatically (website)

When you visit our website, we and our partners automatically collect:

your IP address and approximate location (derived from your IP)
your device type, browser, operating system, screen size and language
the pages you view, the links and ads you click, how long you stay, how you arrived at our site (such as from a search engine or ad), and events like newsletter sign-ups
cookie identifiers and similar online identifiers, including Google, Meta, X and Taboola advertising identifiers.

Information collected automatically (apps)

Our iOS and Android apps collect:

device and app information, including device model, OS version, app version, crash logs and diagnostics
app usage events, such as screens viewed and features used
your push notification token, if you allow notifications
your device’s advertising identifier (Apple IDFA, if you allow tracking, or Google Advertising ID), plus install and attribution data (for example, which ad or campaign led you to install the app).

Information from third parties

Aggregated demographic and interest data from Google. This includes age range, gender and interest categories, derived from Google users who have turned on Ads Personalisation. Google gives this to us only as aggregated reports, not about individuals.
Attribution data from AppsFlyer and ad networks. This tells us whether an app install came from a particular campaign.
Bookmaker and affiliate partners. When you click an affiliate link on our Services, those partners may record click or referral information. We receive click tracking only and no individual user data from these partners.

Sensitive information

We don’t ask for sensitive information, such as health, racial or ethnic origin, political or religious beliefs, or criminal record. Please don’t send it to us. We don’t use Google Analytics or advertising tools to collect sensitive information.

Dealing with us anonymously

You can read our content without creating an account or giving us your name. You’ll need an account to use features like the Black Book, competitions and push alerts. To pay cash prizes we must be able to identify you.

3. How we collect and hold personal information

We collect personal information:

directly from you, through our website, apps, forms, emails and competitions
automatically, through cookies, pixels, tags, SDKs and server logs (see sections 5–7)
from third parties, as described above.

We hold personal information electronically:

in our own systems, including our account and racing platform (known internally as “racing-core”) and our WordPress content system
with trusted cloud hosting, email and service providers that store data on our behalf. Our hosting and service providers may store data in Australia, the United States and other countries.

4. Why we collect, use and disclose personal information

We use personal information to:

Provide our Services. This includes creating and managing your account, saving your Black Book, running competitions and leaderboards, sending the alerts you ask for, and verifying and paying prize winners.
Communicate with you. This includes answering enquiries and sending service messages. If you have subscribed, we also send newsletters, tips, promotions and offers. You can unsubscribe at any time (see section 11).
Measure and understand our audience. This includes counting visitors, working out which content performs well, and producing aggregated, de-identified audience statistics (such as age ranges, gender split, interests, locations and devices). We share these statistics with advertisers, sponsors and partners. They never identify you personally.
Show advertising. This includes showing ads on our Services, which may be personalised based on your interests, and measuring how well our own marketing campaigns work on Google, Meta, X and Taboola, including retargeting people who have visited our site.
Improve our Services. This includes fixing crashes and bugs, testing new features and understanding how the apps are used.
Keep things safe and fair. This includes preventing spam, fraud, abuse, duplicate competition entries and security incidents, and enforcing our Terms of Use.
Meet legal obligations. This includes tax, accounting and responding to lawful requests.

If you don’t give us certain information, we may not be able to provide some features. For example, we can’t create an account without an email address or pay a prize without payment details.

Automated decisions. We do not make decisions about you based solely on automated processing. Automated tools may calculate competition results and leaderboards from race results and prices, and may flag possible duplicate accounts, spam or fraud. The personal information these tools use may include your account details, entries, tips, and device and IP information.

5. Google Analytics and Google’s Advertising Features

We use Google Analytics 4 to understand how people use our website. Google Analytics is loaded through Google Tag Manager. It uses first-party cookies, such as the _ga cookies, to recognise returning browsers and report on usage.

We have turned on the following Google Analytics Advertising Features:

Google signals. When this is on, Google Analytics also collects information from visitors who are signed in to a Google Account and have turned on Ads Personalisation. Google uses this to give us aggregated cross-device reports, and to let audiences built in Google Analytics be used in our linked Google Ads accounts. We only receive aggregated reports and never see who these individuals are.
Demographics and interests reporting. This gives us aggregated reports on the age range, gender and interest categories of our audience, based on Google advertising cookies and device advertising identifiers.
Google Ads integration. Our Google Analytics property is linked to our Google Ads accounts, with ads personalisation turned on. This allows analytics data (such as audiences and key events) to be shared with Google Ads. We can then measure and improve our advertising and show ads to people who have visited our Services (remarketing). We also use the Google Ads conversion and remarketing tag and the Google Conversion Linker.

How we and third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies together. We and third-party vendors, including Google, use first-party cookies (such as the Google Analytics cookie) and third-party cookies (such as Google advertising cookies, including DoubleClick cookies) or other identifiers together to:

compile data about how visitors interact with our site, ads and ad impressions
report on how our ad impressions, other uses of ad services, and interactions with those ad impressions and services relate to visits to our site
report on the demographics and interests of our audience
inform, optimise and serve ads based on your past visits to our site and other sites (interest-based ads and remarketing).

We have also turned on Google Analytics account data-sharing settings, which let Google use data from our Analytics account to improve and support Google’s products and services.

Retention. Google Analytics data at event and user level is kept for 14 months and then automatically deleted. Aggregated reports may be kept longer.

How Google uses information from sites and apps that use its services. See Google’s explanation at https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.

See section 7 to find out how to opt out.

6. Advertising on our Services

Our free content is funded by advertising, sponsorship and affiliate partnerships. We use:

Google AdSense and Google Ad Manager, including Google Publisher Tags, to show ads on the website. Google and its partners may use cookies and identifiers to show ads based on your visits to this and other websites, measure ads, and prevent fraud.
AdRotate, a WordPress ad management plugin we use to place and rotate ads and sponsor banners on our site.
Google AdMob to show ads in our apps. AdMob may use your device’s advertising identifier.
Clickio, a publisher technology service that provides audience and site-performance (“web vitals”) measurement on our website.
Taboola, a content-recommendation and advertising network. We use the Taboola pixel to measure and optimise our marketing. Taboola and its partners (such as the identity provider LiveIntent) may set cookies and match identifiers.
Bookmaker affiliate links. When you click a “Bet here” or similar link, the bookmaker or its affiliate platform may record that you came from us. We may be paid a commission.

We also use advertising tools to measure and target our own marketing on other platforms:

Meta Pixel (Facebook and Instagram), including Meta’s Conversions API delivered through a server-side gateway operated by Stape
X (Twitter) Pixel
Google Ads conversion and remarketing tags
Taboola Pixel.

These tools record that a browser visited our site and which pages it viewed. The advertising platform can then match this to its own users, show them our ads, and tell us how well our ads performed.

7. Cookies and similar technologies

Cookies are small files placed on your browser or device. Similar technologies include pixels (tiny images or scripts), local storage, SDKs in our apps, and device advertising identifiers.

We use them for:

Essential purposes. These include logging you in and keeping you logged in, security, spam protection (including Google reCAPTCHA on some forms and Cloudflare’s security and performance services), and remembering your comment details if you choose.
Analytics. These include Google Analytics 4, Clickio, Cloudflare Web Analytics, and Firebase Analytics in our apps.
Advertising and marketing. These include Google (AdSense, Ad Manager, Google Ads, DoubleClick), Meta, X, Taboola and LiveIntent, and AdMob and AppsFlyer in our apps.
Engagement tools. These include OptinMonster (pop-up and sign-up forms, which uses its own cookies to remember whether you have seen a pop-up) and PushEngage (web push notifications, see section 9).

Some pages also load content from third parties, such as Google Fonts, embedded videos or social media posts. Those providers may collect information as if you had visited them directly.

Visitors in Europe, the UK and Switzerland. If you visit from the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, you’ll see a consent message and can choose whether to allow personalised advertising.

Your choices

Browser settings. Most browsers let you block or delete cookies. Blocking all cookies may stop some features, such as logging in, from working.
Google ads. You can manage or turn off personalised Google ads at https://adssettings.google.com (My Ad Center).
Google Analytics. You can install the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
Industry opt-outs. You can opt out of interest-based ads from participating companies at https://optout.aboutads.info (Digital Advertising Alliance), https://optout.networkadvertising.org (Network Advertising Initiative) and https://www.youronlinechoices.eu (European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance).
Meta. You can manage ad preferences at https://www.facebook.com/adpreferences.
X. You can adjust personalisation and data settings in your X account under Settings > Privacy and safety.
Apps and device advertising IDs:
- iPhone/iPad: go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Tracking and turn off “Allow Apps to Request to Track”, or deny tracking for our app. You can also turn off Personalised Ads under Settings > Privacy & Security > Apple Advertising.
- Android: go to Settings > Google > Ads (or Settings > Privacy > Ads) and choose “Delete advertising ID” or opt out of ads personalisation.

Opting out doesn’t stop you seeing ads. The ads you see will just be less relevant to you.

8. Our apps

Our iOS and Android apps use:

Firebase Analytics (Google), for app usage statistics
Firebase Crashlytics (Google), for crash reports and diagnostics
Firebase Cloud Messaging (Google), to deliver push notifications
Google AdMob, for in-app ads
AppsFlyer, for install attribution and campaign measurement.

These services may collect your device’s advertising identifier (where allowed by your device settings), app instance IDs, IP address, device information and usage events. Where required by Apple, the iOS app asks your permission before accessing your device advertising identifier.

9. Push notifications and alerts

With your permission, we send push notifications about things like race and Black Book alerts, competition updates, breaking news and offers:

in our apps, using Firebase Cloud Messaging
in your web browser, using PushEngage.

To do this we store a device or browser token linked to your preferences, and your account if you are logged in. You can turn notifications off at any time in the app’s settings, your device settings (iOS: Settings > Notifications; Android: Settings > Apps > Notifications) or your browser’s site settings.

10. Who we disclose personal information to

We may disclose personal information to:

service providers who help us run our Services, including hosting and cloud providers (for example Cloudflare and Google), our email newsletter provider, form and spam-protection providers, push notification providers (Google Firebase, PushEngage), analytics providers (Google, Clickio, AppsFlyer), pop-up and sign-up form tools (OptinMonster) and our IT contractors
advertising and marketing partners, including Google, Meta, X, Taboola and their technology partners, as described in sections 5–7
competition partners, where needed to verify or pay winners, or to publish winners’ usernames or first names as the competition terms describe
professional advisers, such as lawyers, accountants and auditors
a buyer or investor, if we are involved in a sale, merger or restructure of our business
government, regulators and law enforcement, where required or authorised by law.

We do not sell your personal information. When we share audience insights with sponsors and advertisers, we only share aggregated, de-identified statistics.

11. Direct marketing

If you subscribe or register, we may send you our newsletter, tips, offers and promotions by email, push notification or other channels. Every marketing email includes an unsubscribe link. You can also unsubscribe at https://thesportingbase.com/unsubscribe/ or by emailing us. We’ll act on your request promptly and free of charge. We follow the Spam Act 2003 (Cth).

12. Overseas disclosure

Many of the providers we use store or process information outside Australia. Our hosting and service providers may store data in Australia, the United States and other countries. The countries may vary by provider and its service providers.

We take reasonable steps to make sure overseas recipients handle your information consistently with the APPs. For example, we use reputable providers that have published privacy and security commitments and data processing terms. When you use our Services, your information may be handled under the laws of those countries, which may differ from Australian law.

13. How long we keep information

Google Analytics: event and user-level data is kept for 14 months, then automatically deleted.
Account and Black Book data: kept while your account is active. When you close your account, we delete or de-identify account data within a reasonable period after an account is closed, unless the law requires us to keep it or we need it for fraud prevention or dispute resolution.
Competition and prize records: kept as long as tax and accounting laws require (generally up to 7 years for payment records).
Newsletter data: kept until you unsubscribe, and afterwards only as a suppression record so we don’t email you again.
Comments: kept while the comment is published.
Third-party advertising and analytics providers keep data under their own retention policies. For Google, see https://policies.google.com/technologies/retention.

When we no longer need personal information, we take reasonable steps to destroy or de-identify it.

14. Security

We take reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse, interference, loss and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. These steps include:

encrypted connections (HTTPS) across our website and apps
hashed passwords
access controls limiting who can see personal information
Cloudflare security protection
reputable hosting providers.

No online service is completely secure. If you think your account has been compromised, please contact us straight away. If a data breach is likely to cause serious harm, we will notify affected individuals and the OAIC as the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme requires.

15. Children

Our Services include racing, betting-related content, tips and competitions, and are intended only for people aged 18 or over. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If you believe someone under 18 has given us personal information, please contact us and we will delete it.

Gambling help: if gambling is causing you harm, call Gambling Help Online on 1800 858 858 or visit https://www.gamblinghelponline.org.au.

16. Accessing and correcting your information

You can ask for access to the personal information we hold about you, or ask us to correct it, by contacting us (see below). Many account details can also be updated directly in your account settings, and you can ask us to delete your account.

We’ll respond within a reasonable time, usually within 30 days. We may need to verify your identity first. We don’t charge for making a request or for correcting information. If there is a reasonable cost to give you access (for example, a large volume of records), we’ll tell you before we proceed.

If we refuse access or correction, we will tell you why in writing and how you can complain. If we refuse to correct your information, you can ask us to attach a statement to it saying you believe it is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading.

17. Complaints

If you have a concern about how we have handled your personal information, or think we have breached the APPs, please contact our Privacy Officer in writing using the details below. Please give us enough detail to investigate.

We aim to acknowledge complaints within 7 days and respond within 30 days. If it will take longer, we’ll let you know.

If you’re not satisfied with our response, or we don’t respond within 30 days, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC):

Online: https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/privacy-complaints
Phone: 1300 363 992
Email: [email protected]
Post: GPO Box 5288, Sydney NSW 2001

18. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time, for example when we add new features or providers or when the law changes (including upcoming reforms to the Privacy Act). We’ll post the updated version on this page with a new “Last updated” date. If a change is significant, we’ll let registered users know by email or in-app notice.

19. Contact us

Privacy Officer, The Sporting Base Pty Ltd

Email: [email protected]
Phone: 0427 352 920

You can ask us for a copy of this policy in another format, free of charge.