5G expansion a gamechanger and major opportunity for racing and betting

Rapid expansion of 5G mobile networks around the world could be a gamechanger for betting operators, providing opportunities for horseracing in particular, according to a technology expert in the field of business development.

Stephen Wise, senior vice president of consulting in the Asia Pacific region for technology giant NTT, told delegates at the Asian Racing Conference in Cape Town on Wednesday: “5G changes everything; it can unlock the potential for businesses and their customers. There is a very changing landscape across the sports and entertainment industries, and new technologies are being used to change the interaction with customers.

“Changes are happening immediately; all 5G does is make them happen quicker and more often. It means many more devices can be put into a small space and still get performance.

“Anyone who has been in a racetrack with a large crowd will know it doesn’t work very well, because my phone bumps up against your phone, but 5G allows us to have massive device density.”

Wise, a Scot who grew up near Musselburgh racecourse, went on to explain how the new technology could be used to change the experience of off-track customers to feel they are on the racecourse, and to provide real-time data engagement that offers information more quickly, whether the customer is on course, in the betting shop or at home.

He detailed how NTT has worked with the Tour de France for the past five years, using a device placed under the rider’s seat to provide live tracking, and last year’s innovation of a ‘fan wall’ at the British Open golf championship, relaying data to spectators in real time, including assessment of a player’s emotions while taking a shot.

Wise concluded: “5G is up and running in 27 countries at the moment and it will start to roll out in a large scale in 2020. The question is how horseracing can find new ways of creating betting opportunities, particularly for younger customers, which will fundamentally change the way that consumers interact with the industry.”

Greater emphasis on 5G is already on the agenda for the Hong Kong Jockey Club, whose executive director for customer and international business development, Richard Cheung, explained that its further development, along with use of artificial intelligence and IOT (the internet of things), was part of a three-pronged strategy to engage with punters more deeply and to boost betting turnover.

Explaining that customers wanted to follow their horse in a race easily, he said: “This can be done with 5G streaming to a mobile and AI, which can recognise a jockey’s silks against a racecard number and identify that horse in a race. This can help the sport to attract the novice customer whose biggest complaint is that when they watch a race, they’ve no idea where their horse is.”

Hong Kong’s strategy also includes expanding globalisation of betting, which took a huge step forward last year with the introduction of a world pool on 24 of the 30 races at Royal Ascot, resulting in a pool-betting market that advanced from £18 million to £92 million.

While playing down the prospect of significant changes when the exercise is repeated this year, Ascot chief operating officer Alastair Warwick revealed there would be one important addition to the product range.

He said: “The market for exotic bets is not that big in the UK but very big in other parts of the world. In the UK the swinger bet had turned over £134,000 in 2018, in 2019 that market was £5.5m, so we will be introducing the trifecta this year, and we expect to see the same uplift again.

“Liquidity is absolutely key, because it helps us to make a competitive product. The pool actually beat SP 16 times on 24 races last year, and the value for the customer was created across the day. We all know pools are competitive at about 8-1, but we were starting to be competitive around 3-1, which showed we were dealing with a global market rather than a regional market.”

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