How Horse Race Betting Has Galloped Into The Online Era

With the popularity of horse race betting steadily on the rise as the sport spreads to new markets and platforms, European Gaming sat down with BETBAZAR’s Chief Operating Officer, Max Sevostianov, to discuss everything sportsbook operators should know before they attempt to tap into this emerging online trend.

Despite horse racing being one of the world’s oldest and most historied forms of betting, wagering on the sport is virtually unrecognisable today even when compared to just a few decades ago.

Rapid advances in betting technology and data analytics, increased internet and smartphone penetration and a wider availability of horse racing events all over the globe have all undoubtedly changed the face of the sport – and this has in turn dramatically altered the ways in which online betting operators have had to market their horse racing product to attract and retain customers.

Indeed, you don’t have to cast your mind back all that far to recall a time when horse racing meets were largely confined to the U.K., Ireland and a handful of marquee events in the U.S.A. These days, however, the sport has become an essential part of the betting landscape in countries like the United Arab Emirates and Japan, presenting new challenges and opportunities for operators.

The impact of horse racing’s growing popularity in the U.A.E. and east Asia is two-fold – not only has greater event choice and frequency reduced betting downtime for customers all over the world and created a more consistent revenue stream for operators, but it has also significantly diversified the audience they target and changed how they communicate from market-to-market.

Having these new countries in the horse racing picture means that a blanket way of promoting the sport is no longer a viable option. Instead, operators should be monitoring the customer data they have in each market very closely to try and identify ways in which they can tailor their offering so that it caters to local tastes. This could, for example, involve creating targeted promotions that tie in with local holidays and specific regional events or partnering with race providers and other associated businesses in the market that can enhance brand awareness and bettor engagement.

Of course, the data operators have on each market should also inform whether or not horse race betting is a viable product to push in the first place. Though – as outlined previously – the popularity of the sport is increasing globally, horse race betting is still a very region-specific vertical and needs an existing audience and infrastructure that operators can target. Potential customers need at least some prior understanding of the sport and the betting product that caters for it, so successfully penetrating a market where horse racing isn’t popular is very unlikely.

The change in the number of countries that host horse racing events, however, pales in comparison to the impact technological innovation has had when it comes to betting on the sport. Again, you don’t have to think back very far to remember a time where the two main ways that customers bet on horse racing were either at the track or at their local high street bookmaker and the only data they had at their disposal was the form guides in publications like Racing Post!

These days, it’s a totally different story. Ever-increasing levels of internet penetration across the globe coupled with wider smartphone adoption has meant that customers can now access and bet on races no matter where they are in the world. While this has alleviated the need to travel to retail betting locations and driven more revenue to online wagering platforms instead, so too has it increased the importance of live streaming to a point that it’s now basically a must-have feature.

As online operators have picked up more and more of the traffic that had previously flown to retail betting locations, the onus on them to provide a similarly engaging experience has also increased. Thankfully for them, technology has now advanced to a point where they’re able to reliably stream races from virtually any track on the planet directly to computers or smartphones, with this effectively opening the door to events that bettors may otherwise never have witnessed.

Of course, one of the keys to providing this level of coverage is operators having the necessary partnerships in place with the rights holders in each market that they operate in, as not only does this provide access to all the races they want to feature, but also to the official data that comes with them. Given that we live in an information age where having access to fast and reliable data is an absolute cornerstone when it comes to making informed betting decisions, the fact that online operators can provide this in greater depth than their offline counterparts is very important.

By collating all the relevant information about how certain horses, jockeys and stables have performed on specific tracks in the past and making this available to customers in real time, operators can enhance the betting experience for both horse racing experts and newcomers to the sport alike. For precisely this reason, BETBAZAR has chosen the most accurate and advanced horse racing product for its marketplace in order to give customers access to detailed statistics from truly trustworthy providers – with this information in turn being used to power all manner of useful graphics and widgets for an even more dynamic user experience.

While these geographical and technological factors both mean that the popularity of horse race betting is likely to increase in the coming years, both will count for nought if the industry doesn’t continue to behave in a responsible and sustainable manner. Luckily, these days virtually every aspect of horse racing is totally regulated and necessary steps have been taken to improve horse welfare and other ethical concerns; all of which is vital to the long-term sustainability of the sport.

Alongside this operators must continue to promote responsible gaming practices in all markets that they service and provide further education and insight to both their clients and customers. In doing so, not only will they build trust within the horse racing community and cement the integrity of their product, but they’ll also set themselves up for more success as the sector grows.