In an effort to make a larger impact on the community, Hollywoodbets chose to team up with their cricket brand ambassador, Mike Procter, to show some much-needed COVID-19 relief support to the community of Phoenix in KwaZulu-Natal. He has been involved with the school for 10 years, offers cricket coaching to the children free of charge and runs the physical education programme for over 1100 children.

In partnership with Mike, Hollywoodbets embraced the Ottawa Community as part of their COVID-19 relief response. Two separate handovers took place through the Ottawa Primary school. A total of 450 food parcels were distributed to vulnerable families of the learners, as well as to other community members who were in dire need.

The Comrades Marathon is one of the biggest annual events that takes place in KwaZulu-Natal. Like many others, this event too had to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, 2020 saw the first ever Comrades Virtual Race Campaign. Hollywoodbets, who are the usual halfway mark sponsors of the race, wanted to ensure that they could still be involved in some way or the other. The company, therefore, made a donation of R12 500 which went towards supplying 95 food hampers to the community of Esikhelekehleni in Drummond.

“We have been involved in the Comrades Marathon for the past 11 years, and more specifically with this community for the past four years. Usually, we donate excess supplies to the Esikhelekehleni community and this year too, we wanted to ensure that we continued supporting them. We have seen how much the developments have grown over the past few years and we are really excited to be back for another handover,” said Brand and Communication Manager for Hollywoodbets, Devin Heffer.

The 1000th winner in KwaZulu-Natal horse racing’s Grooms Initiative, proudly powered by Hollywoodbets and Gold Circle, brought up the significant milestone of R1 Million having been awarded to winning grooms since its inception in October 2019. The 1000th winner received his prize at Hollywoodbets Greyville on Wednesday, 6 January 2021 in the final race of the day.

The initiative sees the rewarding of R1 000 to the groom of the winning horse of every race at the Hollywoodbets Greyville and Hollywoodbets Scottsville racecourses, over and above the earnings paid out from their stable. Bongani Mayeshema, the groom of the 6-year-old gelding, LESLIES PATHTOFAME, was announced as the 1000th Grooms Initiative winner on Wednesday, 6 January. Mr Mayeshema, who works for trainer Frank Robinson, was presented with the normal R1 000 cash incentive, a commemorative trophy and an additional bonus of R1 000 for being the 1000th milestone winner.