Richard Thorp, FSB Technology’s business development director and former head of B2B operations at the Racing Post, believes emerging sportsbooks are heading for a fall in the UK market without a decent horse-racing product
Horse racing and football have been engaged in a silent struggle for some time now in British retail betting, with the latter creeping up on the rails.
Due in no small part to the younger age profile of customers, football has already overtaken its competitor online, leading many to conclude that the sport of kings is in terminal decline.
But as all of the established operators will tell you, the vertical remains absolutely critical to profits in the sector. It is also a key battleground in the war to acquire and retain customers.
It is curious, therefore, that a number of the challenger sportsbooks that have recently acquired UK licences have done so with a racing product best described as inadequate.
Several currently offer win-only options and some have none of the graphical add-ons, such as silks and form, which should surely now be commonplace. The mere mention of Rule 4 would have many new firms scratching their heads and looking for the nearest exit.
The simple and main reason for this is that the sportsbook platforms they’ve plugged into are run by suppliers with little knowledge and even less emotional attachment to the sport, having needed neither in the past.
Instead, these platforms tend to be heavily weighted in favour of in-play markets in other sports with which they’ve enjoyed commercial success in other territories.
These sports don’t have anywhere near the same resonance with UK consumers that horse racing has, meaning they’re less likely bet on them.
And even if those consumers are not all dyed-in-the-wool enthusiasts, it makes even less sense to not have the ability to cross-sell them a half-decent product during the seasonal spikes of the Cheltenham Festival, Grand National and Royal Ascot.
These days, the racing product simply has to include additional statistical information around the races to contextualise the betting opportunity.
Such information has to be available on mobile too and used more and more on-course by punters that have deserted the ring.
As wi-fi connectivity and reliability improves in stadiums and on-course, the UK Saturday customer will require a full suite of traditional betting opportunities. If one of these offerings is half-cocked, why would they subscribe?
A failure to engage meaningfully with a UK customer base when they step on to a racecourse or sit down at a football ground is deeply flawed.
A UK-facing sportsbook with a poor racing product is simply not fit for purpose.
