The 41st Asian Racing Conference (ARC) continued on Wednesday (11 February) with a session titled ‘Transforming Customer Behaviours’ at the Crowne Plaza Riyadh RDC Hotel and Convention Centre in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where experts discussed the importance of experience-driven offerings and enhanced digital assets in helping create memorable race days.

Terecina Kwong, Executive Director, Membership and Customer Excellence, The Hong Kong Jockey Club, said: “The reality is customers today are very much faced with lots of competing demand of their time and attention. In a world of abundant options and choices, the racing experience has to do more than just function. It is about how we get our customers and audience to feel educated and entertained, and that they want to not only stay but also return.

“The audience today is much more selective in terms of how they want to spend their time, and expectation is very much shared by the experience they get, which has to be easy to enter, personally rewarding, and is also worth sharing with their friends and family.”

Kwong highlighted recently renovated venues at Happy Valley Racecourse, which offer an immersive 360-degree experience as fans embark on their journey in horse racing.

“Spaces like ‘The Beat’ and ‘Vantage’ at Happy Valley bring an elevated social energy to a race day by combining live racing with an atmosphere, music and contemporary food and drinks, and for a younger audience – they want to feel that a night at the races is like a night out,” Kwong said.

“Digital is no longer just an extension; it is part of the race day – it is an experience layer. It has three main purposes. The first is how you enhance the live experience by adding context and connecting people on track, the second is that it gives them simplicity – speed, ease, and frictionless participation, and the third is learning and engaging content.

“We have created AI tools to translate racing information into a much more accessible format, helping people build confidence and participate without the need for deep prior knowledge.”

Kwong was joined by Mr William C. Carstanjen, Chief Executive Officer, Churchill Downs Incorporated, and Mr Gillon McLachlan, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, Tabcorp.

In a session titled ‘Integrity’, Mr Douglas Robinson, Director, IFHA Council on Anti-Illegal Betting and Related Crime Executive Manager – International Illegal Betting Research and Liaison, The Hong Kong Jockey Club, and Mr Jack Zuber, Senior Manager – Racing Integrity and Betting Analysis, The Hong Kong Jockey Club, discussed the evolving landscape of integrity and the crucial role technology plays.

Mr Zuber said computer models through machine learning are helping to monitor racing’s integrity and investigate suspicious betting trends, highlighting starting prices and a horse’s settling position as two key factors he prioritises when employing machine learning.

“Performance is a good indicator of both betting moves and actual performance, but from an integrity perspective, when the parity between either of these is broken, there may be an integrity risk present – which is exacerbated even further when the parity between the betting move and the performance on the day is upheld. To combat this, we have developed models to accurately predict the current performance of the horse,” he said.

“Starting price is a great indicator of actual performance, but surprisingly, settling position is also a great indicator as well. Since 2011 in Hong Kong, if you were to bet to collect the same amount on every single horse that settled within one length of the lead, you would be winning at 10% on turnover, and as such, these are two models that we have heavily developed.”

Mr Robinson said that cryptocurrencies are fuelling an out-of-control illegal betting market, which tops US$3.5 trillion dollars and causes serious harm to the industry. He cited a lack of regulation as a factor for the rapid growth of the illegal market and called on legislators to do more in the space.  

“It (illegal betting) continues to grow faster than the legal markets. The primary reasons are due to better prices, better placement, better product and better promotion, and it is exploding.

“It causes criminality, sports corruption, and it increases the tax which legal operators pay – the cost of that is huge. Using crypto means the customer is essentially anonymous, not completely anonymous, but it’s not easy. We have rapid growth in the illegal space and in the legal space we have firms exiting. Crypto enabled illegal betting is even worse because it further supports corruption and there is an additional money laundering question.”

Aja Hall, Co-Director of Integrity, Regulation and Safeguarding, British Horseracing Authority; Mr Kim Kelly, Deputy Commissioner, Queensland Racing Integrity Commission and Chair IFHA International Harmonisation of Racing Rules Committee, and Mr Louis Weston, Barrister, Outer Temple Chambers.