Horse Racing Report Targets Bolstering Betting Conversion Strategies

An insightful report has been published, underlining the need to deepen engagement levels in horse racing and focusing on capturing new audience types. Commissioned by the Spotlight Sports Group, the publication addressed pressing issues, such as fostering greater betting conversion rates among the 16-24 demographic.

Plugging unexploited opportunities

The report interwove a fascinating mix of stats compiled by Price Waterhouse Coopers, consumer insights company GWI, and findings reflected by Project Beacon. Within this, some of the sport’s leading figures contributed their thoughts.

While Project Beacon was one of the most extensive surveys ever carried out on horse racing, Spotlight’s report revealed there is now an untapped audience of 200 million people, who are purely sports and big events fans. The audience profiling structure was broken down as follows:

• There are 6-8 million core horse racing fans at the top who need to be retained and optimised.
• Around 30-40 million horse racing fans are more casual.
• There are 120 million global sports fans who could be pulled into horse racing.
• A further 80 million people drawn to entertainment and live events, could be converted into racing fans with the right tools implemented.

Interestingly, the report indicated there is a benefit of attracting the Under-25s to horse racing, given the sport has traditionally held an older fan base. When you consider that 85.9% of the racing audience is mobile-first, according to GWI, the sport can’t afford to leave behind a generation of potential fans.

Getting back to basics

Above all else, racing should get back to basics and present itself as a sport first before worrying about betting retention levels. Evidence provided by the Hong Kong Jockey Club indicated that roughly 70% of new fans introduced to the sport, rather than through betting, eventually decided to wager more organically.

Emphasising the importance of promoting horse racing properly, the Hong Kong Jockey Club Chief Executive Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges said: “The strongest audiences are built around understanding distinct customer needs and behaviours.

“When racing is introduced as a sport first, around 70% of new fans eventually engage with wagering anyway — the fandom comes first, the betting follows.”

One criticism levelled at horse racing in the past has been the ambiguity surrounding betting, where racecards can feel “overwhelming” and complex terminology can seem off-putting to novice punters. According to GWI, horse racing ranks seventh globally for sports betting, while the Under-25s are falling behind the baseline for horse racing wagering, accounting for just 20.7%.

F1 cited as the benchmark

For all intents and purposes, horse racing has been urged to reshape its digital ecosystem to foster greater engagement levels. Indeed, the report declared F1 as the benchmark to aspire to.

In the past decade, F1 faced similar challenges over revitalising an ageing fanbase. Having shifted from being a male-dominated sport, it now has a more diverse audience. The report indicates that half of the sport’s fans are now under the age of 35, while 47% of fans are female.

For horse racing, it is suggested having a more joined-up data approach could stir greater interest. PwC noted that those in the 18-24 age range are 120% more likely to watch sports highlights on social media than 55-65-year-olds. By introducing a more robust digital and social media strategy, the report suggests this will turn  racing’s characters into “drivers of sustained fan engagement”.

Royal Ascot on the horizon

It’s just under two weeks before Royal Ascot gets underway. Offering a prime opportunity to onboard new racing fans, sitting back is no longer an option.