HONG KONG, CHINA – Two days before one of Hong Kong's biggest days of racing, Hong Kong Jockey Club chief executive officer Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges sat down with the press in a member's room overlooking Sha Tin Racecourse for a wide-ranging discussion of everything from the quality of Sunday's Longines Hong Kong International Races to the state of racing and wagering globally. Warning of a “massive generation issue” for the sport, Engelbrecht-Bresges's focus returned several times to the need for racing to incorporate emerging technology, both from a wagering standpoint and as a means to attract younger racing fans.
The Hong Kong Jockey Club opened Conghua Racecourse in Guangzhou in 2018 and expects to hold its first race meet at the Mainland China track in October.
“Conghua has been a game changer for our development,” Engelbrecht-Bresges said. “If you look long term, I believe there will be development of the breeding industry in China. Maybe it will take 10 years, but it will. So then, the two racecourses [Happy Valley and Sha Tin], plus Conghua, with the greater Bay Area, will be the triangle of world-class racing in China. Having the training center in China, expanding the horse population, is a must.”
The first race meet at Conghua had originally been planned for April, but its delay until October will allow officials to offer patrons a higher quality experience, according to Engelbrecht-Bresges.
“We have invested even more in technology,” he said. “Because we benchmarked the kind of experience you have to provide in China. The digital experience we have in Hong Kong is good. In China, it's three to five years ahead of Hong Kong. And the customer expectation is not a Hong Kong expectation, it's a mainland expectation. In terms of navigation, payment, solutions regarding wayfinding, from interaction information, if you don't have an integrated solution, you would be seen as a dinosaur. So, we invested now another, around HK$100 million, or 10 million euro, to create a customer experience which was on par with the customer experience you have now in a major sports stadium. We built this first on the mainland, and then we have the opportunity to probably transmit this and bring it into Hong Kong.”
While wagering on racing is not allowed on mainland China, the idea of wagering on races from Conghua in Hong Kong remains a tantalizing possibility, but Engelbrecht-Bresges said even without gambling, racing in Conghua will give the HKJC an opportunity to grow the sport.
“The fan base in not necessarily based on wagering capability,” he said. “If you would widen the fan base, you have to have different experiences. And we experimented with immersive experiences, to demystify horse racing because for many younger people who are not caught up in the sport, it is very difficult to understand. So that is what helps us with the business model in China, which is not built on wagering. It's a business model which is fan based, to have other income streams. Especially, we think there is a huge income stream which we have seen in merchandising. We have partnerships now with a China travel group. We could bring any merchandise we have into China. So how you build now, new value propositions would give you different incomes.”
While developing technology for new fan engagement, the HKJC is not neglecting advancement in wagering technology. With legislation passed by the Hong Kong Legislative Council in September, HKJC could begin offering betting on basketball–focused mainly on the United States' National Basketball Association–beginning next fall, pending licensing.
In advance of basketball wagering–and with the possibility of other sports to follow–Engelbrecht-Bresges said the HKJC has moved to modernize its wagering system.
“We have already invested heavily to modernize our tech stack,” he said. “We have decided we want to build a new system and work on an external base of a system which is available, but which we will have to modify significantly. But this will be the system of the future because we will invest now in the next five years probably around HK$8 to HK$10 billion in technology. And this is a completely new technology step. Our parimutuel system is probably the system that can handle the most transactions, we can handle seven or eight thousand transactions per second, but we want to build a new system which will go up to 20,000 a second and will be built on completely different platforms. So that is the next significant investment we have.”
When asked what he sees as racing's current challenges, Engelbrecht-Bresges said, “I think we have a massive generation issue. If we are not able to widen our customer base and become more attractive to a wider customer segment, we will become a sport whose relevance in five or 10 years is really a challenge.”
Looking ahead, he added, “Going forward, I would like to see that we create much more global international events and that the sport globally unites more to be advocates of the sport and not get dragged down into the battles of–I call them ankle biters. We have to stop this. We have to step back and say what is our strategy, what's our vision and overcome certain personal dislikes. Because it's bad for the sport.”
Back to the more immediate topic of Sunday's four international races, featuring a pair of Hong Kong champions in Ka Ying Rising (NZ) (Shamexpress {NZ}) and Romantic Warrior (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}), Engelbrecht-Bresges admitted he was rooting for the home team to do well. Just not too well.
“I hope that we see world-class competitions and we see exciting finishes,” he said. “Safety is extremely important. And I am maybe a little bit biased, but I would like to see that there is a little spread and it's not only a Hong Kong domination. It's an international week. And even though you are proud when your home team wins, if your home team is too dominant, then nobody wants to come. I have a certain preference that two of the Hong Kong horses show how good they are, naturally. But I would like to see a spread really of results and not just Hong Kong domination.”
The post ‘Massive Generation Issue’: HKJC CEO Sees Technology as Key to Bridging Generational Gap appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.
