British Horseracing Authority study indicates horse welfare is still biggest hurdle
The study has been used to identify key customer groups that are currently underutilised, as well as six areas of improvement that could be used to attract more punters to the sport.
Key points:
– The British Horseracing Authority has published its results from Project Beacon
– The study asked over 7,500 people in the UK and Ireland about their opinions on horseracing
– The Authority has analysed the figures and formed strategies on how to grow the sector
The British Horseracing Authority (BHA) has published its findings from Project Beacon, a study that asked more than 7,500 people in the UK and Ireland what they thought about the current state of horseracing.
The findings found that 34% of people interviewed were potential fans while 33% were casual fans, which, when scaled against the UK population, would account for 8.5 million and 8.4 million people respectively.
However, this is the BHA presuming the figures would reflect perfectly in this aspect.
Potential fans were categorised as 22% sideline socialisers and 11% as open-minded rookies – the BHAs labels, not ours.
The casual fans were split between 9% hesitant onlookers, 17% social stakers and 6% as simply ‘horse fans’.
These two categories were highlighted as the focus for growth targets; with open-minded rookies described as “a younger audience with large growth potential, open to watching horse racing”; while social stakers were “currently engaging with racing but mostly as a social pastime, but who could be encouraged to attend more and engage more with the sport itself.”
The second half of the study focused on the barriers horseracing faces when it comes to growth.
A total of 27% of potential customers had concerns over the welfare of the horses, 25% had no emotional connection to the horses and 21% preferred other sports.
While the BHA has already invested in programmes dedicated to highlighting welfare improvements, it is clear that more must be done to attract new people to the sport.
Good to know: In 2019, British racing founded an independently-chaired Horse Welfare Board to oversee all matters related to regulating horse safety
As for the second point, this one is more difficult, but moves are already being made in the industry.
Recently, Gambling Insider looked into how a video game based on real-life racing horses is using the emotional connection between the characters to attract more people to the sport – and betting as a peripheral.
As for the BHA, the organisation has flagged six core areas that it is going to focus on going forward as part of its initiative to grow the sport.
These include addressing welfare concerns, making the sport easier to understand, creating a racing narrative or league that is easy to follow, building emotional connections, evolving the race day experience and making ownership more accessible by lowering costs for those who want to get involved.
Hong Kong has also just begun its project of evolving the race day experience, with the hopes of attracting a new demographic to the tracks.
This included building a full-sized robot horse at Sha Tin Racecourse to encourage selfies and using organic social media engagement to promote interest in the sport.
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