The Evolution of Fan Engagement In Horse Racing

Horse racing has been a popular spectator sport for hundreds of years and remains one of the top sports for gambling and betting. As with all other sports, digital technology and changes in consumer preferences have forced horse racing to adapt to keep fans engaged.

Today, sports fans have the world at their fingertips. They can consume sports media from across the world at the click of a button. This makes keeping them engaged harder than ever. How has fan engagement in horse racing evolved in recent times? Find out here.

Social Media

Almost every industry you can imagine has been transformed by social media, and horse racing is no exception.

These social platforms have changed the way we communicate with each other, consume digital media and interact with brands and businesses. They serve as the perfect channel for delivering content, be that images, videos, or blogs, and have become key marketing platforms for an enormous range of different industries.

Horse racing fans are like fans of any other sport. They are passionate and eager to learn all they can. They will follow their favourite jockeys and teams with commitment and dedication, showing their support digitally if they cannot in person.

For horse racing brands, social media is an indispensable tool that can be utilised to boost engagement. It can be used to deliver information about upcoming races, updates on jockeys and calendars of activity.

Extra content can also be posted on social media, such as behind-the-scenes pictures and videos, interviews and opinion pieces. This gives fans greater insight into the sport they love and will help them feel more connected and part of the horse racing family.

Billions of people across the world use social media. With such incredible numbers, it’s unsurprising that these digital platforms have become such vital marketing tools. The way in which fans engage with horse racing has completely changed as a result of social media. They can now follow the sport more closely and learn even more about it.

Online Betting Platforms

In years gone by, if you wanted to bet on a horse race you would have to visit a bookies’ shop or head to the racecourse. While this did little to stem the popularity of the activity, it did alienate a certain section of fans who couldn’t access these locations.

Today, this problem is a thing of the past. Modern online betting platforms and casinos allow fans to bet on horse races anywhere in the world from the comfort of their homes. iGaming is a massive digital industry – one of the largest, in fact – with trusted guides like casinos.com offering their seal of approval to providers and sites. As the technologies behind betting platforms and casino sites grow more advanced, so too does the offering – and the impact on users.

These platforms don’t just allow users to bet on horse races; they are key to driving and maintaining fan engagement. They can provide detailed information about races, horses and jockeys, the ‘going’ and special deals and offers are extremely effective for bringing in players and entertaining fans.

These offers can be used to celebrate the biggest racing festivals, such as Cheltenham, and have become one of the most important tools for driving fan engagement.

VR and AR

Fan engagement today is all about making the most of technology. Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are two of the most exciting technologies on the market today, and they promise to take horse racing fan engagement to a new level.

VR creates fully immersive digital worlds that users can step into and interact with. How does this affect horse racing?

Let’s say a fan wants to visit a race in another country but doesn’t have the funds to do so. Rather than miss out, they can experience a VR broadcast of the event. They’ll be able to tour the course and watch the races up close, with high-definition visuals that will make them feel as if they are actually there.

Instead of creating full virtual worlds, AR enhances the world we see in front of us. Users put on goggles or glasses that can superimpose images and graphics onto what they are physically seeing.

For horse racing, this opens up numerous possibilities for fan engagement. Fans who visit a race wearing AR glasses will be able to see real-time race information and updates displayed as high-definition graphics in their field of view. Things like changes to odds or timetable changes will be delivered to them immediately, ensuring they are kept up to date with everything that is happening.

VR and AR are two key ways fan engagement in horse racing is evolving, and will no doubt play an integral role in the sport as we head into the future.

Conclusion

Like most other sports, the way in which fans are engaging with horse racing is changing rapidly. It is being fuelled by technological developments such as online betting platforms, social media and VR/AR. As these technologies continue to improve, we can expect fan engagement in horse racing to change even more.