Industry leaders discuss the International Horseracing market
Betting on Sport 2019 is fast approaching and one of the key topics up for debate throughout the conference is the future of horseracing and the growth of racing outside of UK and Ireland.
On Wednesday afternoon industry leaders will come together to discuss the future of international horseracing and greyhound racing and the differences across the number of key territories throughout the world.
Ahead of the conference, we spoke to three of the speakers, Racing Post B2B Director, Eugene Delaney, Matchbook, Trading and Liquidity Director, Aidan Barry and BetMakers CEO Todd Buckingham on the key talking points surrounding international horseracing.
Horseracing is built for betting but there are lots of different formats all around the globe. Does this affect the betting activity and do you think a governing body like FIFA in football could be created to align the sport around the world? If so, how could this benefit operators?
Todd Buckingham (TB): It certainly could, one of the biggest challenges for operators to expand their offering is the normalisation of data from Race Day Controls, Official data formats, enhancing of that data, and pricing solutions. We are currently working with a number of Rights Holders to establish a structure that can be accepted across jurisdictions.
As an operator to have a single solution for International Racing with everything included within that solution makes it much easier for the operator to expand the number of races they bet on without the cost of increasing resources across their team and data suppliers.
Eugene Delaney (ED): Formula 1 is a great example of how you can grow a sport through central control. Each element such as the schedule, rules, commercials programmes, TV delivery is delivered through one governing body who can ensure that all the decisions are in the best interest of the sport. Unfortunately, this is not the case in Racing. Rights are fragmented across pictures and data.
There is an appetite from operators to be able to take a centralised product and we are creating the technology through our new AllSported joint venture with Banach and TXodds which will allow the centralisation of pictures, content and trading. But it will require all the rights holders to be sensible with the distribution of their rights and work with the companies trying to enable the centralisation which will benefit the sport as a whole.
Aidan Barry (AB): As long as the Hong Kong Jockey club is in charge, I’m all for it! Each horseracing jurisdiction across the world has specific intricacies which local customers enjoy and relate to. Operators need localised content and trading that is specific to that region to help engage customers across the globe.
How do you feel you can increase customers interest in horseracing around the globe to the levels of UK and Ireland both in-store and online?
ED: Racing can be seen as a complex proposition and is presented in various formats throughout the world. If we can centralise the product and ensure there is a consistency and familiarity with the product we can assist the growth. Having a central supply of quality pictures and localised data will ensure that customers can engage regardless of location.
However, we currently have a very fragmented offering. For example, since the breakup of GBI (Great British and Irish Racing – the International sales arm), there are now two separate UK and Irish packages in the international market. From a customer perspective, it can be very confusing if their local operators have differing offerings.
AB: Don’t get me wrong it’s a difficult task and there’s a large proportion of customers that are happy to just bet on UK and Irish racing. But for me, it’s all about expanding the product offering. The punters want and need info, pictures, early pricing, content etc. Bookmakers have had moderate success this side of the world with South Africa, LARC, the US and France in particular forming part of their daily offering.
At Matchbook we’ve seen what improved liquidity and even things such as basic form and silks can do for International Racing. However, with streaming available from SIS and the PA from all corners of the globe and now new content solutions like Racing Post (AllSported) are demoing at Betting on Sports punters will naturally become more familiar and comfortable with not just the traditional international racing regions but with racing from mainland Europe, Australia and Asia and possibly even Trotting.
TB: I believe the real focus for operators will turn to their racing offering due to the upcoming challenges for the other products they are currently offering. Data Rights for sports is a hot topic at the moment, limits on maximum bets for RNG type products such as Casino and Bingo and I believe these will change focus for the potential growth in a high margin product such as International Racing where you can place a bet on a race every 5 or 10 minutes.
There are new markets open around the world (e.g. the US), what are your plans for growth in these markets and how do they fit in your plans?
AB: All eyes are obviously on the US of late and Matchbook are keen to be part of it in some shape or form. As regards racing in the US I think there’s a feeling that the opening of sports betting may cannibalise the sector. There’s no doubt that over the next few years there’s a big job for racing to adapt to the new market conditions in the US and the sector needs to position itself to work in tandem with the sports betting sector.
TB: Sports betting in the US is limited in terms of ‘Betting hours’ with sports such as NFL only operating a few days per week for 4 months of the year. Bookmakers will need to keep their online shop open 24/7 and that void will be filled with horseracing. I also believe the implementation of Fixed Odds betting on horseracing for the US market will give the biggest margin returns to the operator. This will ensure horseracing is relevant as a product in what is estimated to grow into the biggest global market over the next few years.
We hope to offer our customers a greater range of content with our tote license and tote technology for the US market.
ED: The global market is continually opening up with the US and many other territories passing legislation to offer betting. From a Racing Post perspective, we are focusing on the needs of the customer and identifying gaps in the marketplace.
We have built an international database which allows Racing Post to consume all global racing feeds, cleanse and correct the data (jockey names, form lines, etc) with our machine learning, blockchain technology control and artificial intelligence capabilities. This gives us the ability to output a localised multi-jurisdictional and multilingual product along with our trading proposition AllSported – which allows operators to have comfort offering a racing product without the difficulty and stress of creating a racing trading team.
What challenges have you had to overcome so far when attempting to offer new territories around the world to punters? Language, regulation etc?
ED: Rights Holders are rightly very protective of their pictures and data but exclusive and restrictive agreements with varying commercial models/arrangements has made a centralised offering difficult to coordinate. I believe that we can prove that the centralisation of the sport can benefit each of the rights holders and reduce the headache of managing the international sales while still ensuring they have full visibility, control and reporting on their product.
AB: Compliance and regulation have obviously tightened and everyone in the industry is bound to be noticing the changes that are happening.
Localisation is key in trying to operate in new territories. Language, local UX, local currency all seem to be key. A previous company I worked for saw a huge uptick in business in a region by simply rolling out the local currency.
TB: The biggest challenge is coming from the different revenue models across the world. How ‘Rights Holders’ would like to charge for the use of their data has been different across jurisdictions which makes it difficult for operators to understand what the best model for them is. At the moment, we have different models including fixed fee, to profit share to a percentage of turnover or a combination of these.
All of these models have positives and negatives for operators and racing bodies, so working out the best solution is the challenge. Australia has had enormous success as an industry getting this model correct.
Innovation is a key method for the gambling industry to engage customers. What new innovations would you like you to see in the industry to assist the growth internationally?
TB: I believe the ‘Innovation’ will come from the regulatory aspect at first for US and UK growth for horseracing. The growth in Australia came through innovation that started with regulation and then moved to operators to provide a better offering to customers. Customer engaging features such as protest payouts, odds boost, margin boosts have been very effective for customer engagement and these types of features will work across the globe.
Turnover on horseracing has more than doubled in the past 10-12 years and that has meant a growth in prize money. I don’t believe there would be a faster growth market anywhere in the world so they must be doing something right!
ED: The globalisation of other sports has come from a very structured schedule which allows the public to engage throughout the year if you look at things like the majors in tennis and golf or the diamond league in athletics. The global population engage with these “superstars” throughout the schedule.
I would love to see racing running a more inclusive global schedule with certain key meetings/races moving around the world to engage a global audience and build racing audiences in new and developing territories.
AB: I met Oli Harris from Championship racing around this time last year and I was really excited by “The Series” idea which was hoping to bring the Formula 1 team element into racing in an effort to make the sport a bit more consumable for people. Unfortunately, the project didn’t launch as planned in July but I firmly believe there was something in that.
Enticing more of the best horses to run internationally is key – see Gordon Elliot winning American Grand National and the buzz Japanese brought to the UK this summer. Contrast to that the number of UK runners we see running in events like the Dublin racing Festival and even valuable races like the Galway Plate and Hurdles.
The big one in the news of late has been of course sectionals which will be available at every course from 2021. Whether it will become a key metric for people studying form or be used by operators to enhance the betting in-play product remains to be seen. It’s coming so we might as well embrace it!
Betting on Sports 2019 is the worlds leading sports betting industry conference and takes place on 17-20 September at Olympia London. Tickets are still available online on www.sbcevents.com.