“Racing must lead with the sport, not the betting” and has a possible untapped fan base of up to 200 million people if it can crack the puzzle – and reaching these people could benefit all horse sport.
The Horse Racing Audience Opportunity report is by Spotlight Sports Group – owners of the Racing Post and a B2B partner to the global racing and sports betting industry. It analysed racing’s current global fan base and shared recommendations to grow it, drawing on consumer research, senior figures in racing and learnings from Formula 1.
Its key findings included that racing needs to be easier to understand for more people, that tradition is not a bad thing – but must not hold racing back – and that racing must have a closer relationship with its customers and give them reasons to become, and stay, interested.
It also found that betting is “vital to the health of racing in most jurisdictions”, but that when attempting to sell itself, it is more successful to lead with the sport, not the betting; and that racing jurisdictions are not in competition with each other, but rather other sports and forms of entertainment.
“As an industry, racing is a major employer. People’s livelihoods depend on it. They need it to continue and, in the long term, they require it to flourish. However, for racing to work as an industry, it must first work as a sport – and any sport requires an audience. Central to this report is how racing can ensure it keeps and grows that audience,” said Spotlight Sports Group CEO Mark Renshaw in the report’s foreword.
“At a time of serious economic challenges and enormous societal change, and with the retention of racing’s social licence no longer guaranteed, there is an absolute need to better understand, appreciate and entertain those who enjoy racing now and those we want to enjoy it in the future. More than most sports, racing has existed with a fan base that is far from youthful.”
The report highlighted that racing’s “key opportunity” is to make a connection with non-racing sports fans aged between 25-44, and also with those aged 16-24 who fall into the 60-80 million people who can be classified as “big event fans”.
Sam Houlding, managing director of B2B at Spotlight Sports Group, told H&H that for him “the headline isn’t decline, it’s the scale of the opportunity”.
“We’re no longer competing only with football, Formula 1 or cricket. We’re competing with everything else on a phone screen, and more than half of 18-44 sports fans now follow 11 sports or more. Attention has to be earned, and racing has a genuine chance to earn a far bigger share of it,” he said.
“Betting will always be central to our model, but it’s the outcome of fandom, not the entry point to it.”
He said this means three things: telling a connected, year-round story rather than presenting a series of one-off events, making racing easy to understand for someone meeting it for the first time and reaching younger audiences where they are, which is mobile and social.
“Formula 1 has shown what season-long narrative can do, and cricket’s The Hundred showed the power of simply making a sport easier to follow. Racing is one of the richest sports in the world for data and heritage, and the task is to simplify the way in without losing the depth existing fans love,” he said.
H&H asked if any areas highlighted in the report potentially cross over with the broader equestrian world, and if there are take-aways that could apply and so strengthen the future of the whole industry.
“It’s a fair question, and much of what the report identifies isn’t unique to racing, it’s common to the whole horse world,” said Mr Houlding.
“The wider equestrian industry shares many of the same dynamics – a deeply passionate core, flagship moments that draw in casual interest and a language and set of conventions that can feel hard to penetrate for newcomers.
“The same principles apply across the board – lead with the sport and the storytelling, lower the barriers to understanding, and build mobile-first entry points for new fans. If racing and the broader equine world saw themselves as part of one connected story rather than separate silos, there’s a real opportunity to introduce audiences to each other and grow the whole ecosystem.
“A new fan who comes in through one part of the horse world is a potential fan of all of it.”
Ascot racecourse CEO Felicity Barnard said Ascot sees “huge opportunity globally, and every major raceday is a chance for us to convert people into lifelong fans”.
“As the report highlights, racing’s digital offering needs to develop and evolve so that it can reach new fans and the insights from this work will help the whole industry do that more deliberately and at greater scale,” she said.
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