The Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) will next week introduce its most “digitally immersive” customer experience yet as one official dreams of creating “the ChatGPT version of horse racing”.
HKJC executive director of racing Andrew Harding told the Asian Racing Conference (ARC) on Wednesday that “fan engagement is no mere buzzword – it will determine our future” as officials fight intense competition from other sports and digital entertainment offerings.
“What we are offering today is not good enough,” said Dennis Hau, the Jockey Club’s executive director of customer strategy, insights and innovation, in response to flagging local turnover in Hong Kong.
“The dream that I am trying to achieve is to create the ChatGPT version of horse racing. It will have data from the back end to support it to become the best specialist for you to predict the race ahead.”
Hau confirmed part of the Jockey Club’s current digital experience features virtual key opinion leaders offering race tips and believes the next generation of fans will expect access to an artificial intelligence (AI) simulator to predict which horse is going to win.
“I’m very happy to introduce that next week we are going to launch a new restaurant in our Happy Valley racecourse, which is completely a game changer,” Hau said.
“Not just because we will uplift the entertainment environment for our customers, but we have also tried our best to develop our most digitally immersive experience for our young customers.
“We will introduce a digital parade ring, we will introduce AI-generated race cards and AR [augmented reality] horse performance.”
The Jockey Club is betting on a data-driven approach to keep its current fans engaged and attract the next generation.
“Without data, without understanding our customers, we would be flying blind, we would only be able to provide a one-size-fits-all service,” said Hau.
The notion of gamifying racing to reach underage fans – as has been done with such effect in Japan through games such as Derby Stallion and Uma Musume: Pretty Derby – was also a key plank of Wednesday afternoon’s fan engagement discussion at the ARC.
“I think what racing has got to do, because we don’t have that [early] participation like they do in other sports, we need to find a way where we can communicate that racing is good,” said Racing New South Wales CEO Peter V’Landys.
“I think the only way we can do it is gamification. We have got to find a way to establish a game that doesn’t revolve around gambling … that could be the contact point.”
