How horseracing and betting found an unlikely allegiance in anime

Uma Musume Pretty Derby is currently the third-best-selling game on PC and has over one million hours viewed on Twitch, but you’d be excused for never hearing about it. This franchise was initially launched in 2016 and features famous real-life racehorses reimagined as cartoon girls, each with strong personalities reflected from their real-life counterparts. Some of the most famous names include Special Week, Silence Suzuka, Gold Ship and Haru Urara – and remember these names, because we will be discussing them later.  

While Pretty Derby has been popular in Japan for many years, it exploded in popularity this June when popular streamer Northernlion, real name Ryan Gary Letourneau, decided to take a gamble on the anime game. Only intended as a quick joke, these streams would quickly become the best-performing videos on his channel – ever – and propelled both Northernlion and Pretty Derby into the stratosphere. His viewership rose by 96.7% to around 33,000 for his horseracing streams and suddenly Pretty Derby was trending across social media sites. People were fascinated, amused, cringed out but most importantly, they were all talking about horseracing.

It’s silly and lighthearted, but the game revolves around racing anime characters as if they were horses

There are two horses in particular people gravitated towards, Gold Ship and Haru Urara, and both of them are famous for betting incidents. Gold Ship was famous for his difficult personality, which cost punters ¥11.7bn ($75m) when he simply refused to race during the The Grand Prix “The 56th Takarazuka Kinen.” There was another incident where he stopped mid-race to stare at the crowd in France, with the colourful personality also written into the game.

Meanwhile, Haru Urara famously never won a race during her six-year career, causing her to become a national sweetheart in the eyes of many. When she officially retired in 2004, she had 0 wins and 113 losses. Due to this, she also became the face of gambling in Japan, too. People would use Hara Urara betting tickets as a protective ward to prevent traffic accidents, the Kochi Prefecture Horseracing Association introduced a special stamp for Hara Urara betting tickets and people would wait for up to five hours to buy tickets from Haru Urara Commemorative Ticket Booths

Just before her retirement, fans bet ¥121.8m on her winning, and even the Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said: “I’d like to see Haru Urara win, even just once. The horse is a good example of not giving up in the face of defeat.” When she was entered into a “Soft Girls’ Gathering” for retired mares in 2019, she finally defied the odds and won her first-ever race, aged 23.

At the time of writing, Haru Urara has been donated 2,840kg of rye-grass by fans of the series

What could this mean for the UK, European and US horseracing scene? 

So, now, there is finally an increased interest in horseracing – something the sport has been crying out for for years. Not only that, but it’s young people who want to actively get involved. Since the English release of Pretty Derby, fans have bought 2.5 metric tons of grass for Haru Urara and tickets to meet her are consistently sold out. The game is at the top of international charts and there are rumblings of potential brand deals on social media. If you need any more proof, many young people are calling for the ‘Gen Z’ race horse Skibidi Rizz to be added to Pretty Derby, because there’s a novelty in a name that connects with the horse racing in a game they play. The potential synergy is incredible, yet entirely untapped.

British horseracing has been looking for a facelift for years and executives have been struggling to pinpoint a strategy to get young people interested. Rarely does the opportunity come along for an entirely new demographic to actively take an interest in your industry, but this demographic being young anime fans was probably not on anyone’s mind. It also begs the question, is our horseracing scene prepared – or even willing – to appeal to such a group so unfamiliar to traditional UK notions of the sport?

There is an argument that the opportunity presented by Uma Musume Pretty Derby may be better suited for racetracks elsewhere in Europe and America. For example, France has already taken the initiative. On 16 June, Umamusume: Pretty Derby developers Cygames became the Title Partner of the Grand Prix de Paris through a deal with France Galop. Cygames would also feature at this year’s Kentucky Derby.

Elie Hennau, France Galop Managing Director, said: “This partnership is yet another step in France Galop’s ambition to put racing back in the hearts of the French public by reaching new audiences – especially younger generations who are increasingly interested in the events we host at our racecourses.”

France Galop, the governing body of flat and steeplechase horseracing in France, has already signed a deal with the game

Now, no one is expecting Royal Ascot to adorn its stands with pictures of anime girls or horses, but completely ignoring it doesn’t seem wise either. If any other vertical in gambling saw peripheral success to this degree, they would have jumped on the opportunity immediately. Imagine a bingo-themed video game becoming a global phenomenon with young people and operators just ignoring it entirely. It wouldn’t happen.

Slots has every angle covered there, too. You even have Friends-themed games these days! The cartoon aesthetic may prove challenging in the West for one more reason: Advertising rules. While anime is completely accepted in Japan, many in the West will see cartoon imagery and assume that it is targeted towards people under the age of 18, even if it was not intended to be.

But, with carefully managed advertising, would any recognition of this trend hurt the upper-middle-class image the UK has created for horseracing? It’s a distinct possibility and probably the main concern of any executives who are introduced to Uma Musume Pretty Derby. After all, our races are all about the extravagant hats and expensive suits, are they not?

While this fun and foreign trend might not suit British horseracing, it’s certainly a shame that an entire industry could miss out on an opportunity simply because the tens of thousands of new fans contrast so deeply against the current ones. More broadly, where horseracing can find an intersection between those two demographics may well be where the sport determines its destiny.