The Racing League is on a mission to reimagine horse racing—and the Web3 Loyalty Platform is a key pillar of the Winners' Club's efforts to promote the sport to a wider audience.
Powered by Zilica, Winners' Circle is creating a “more interactive experience” to attract younger, tech-savvy fans to horse racing, ERC-20 Blockchain Head of Business Development – Sports and Gaming Tom Fletham told Decrypt.
Those younger audiences “don't consume content as casually as previous generations did,” Fleetham said. To this end, Winners Club offers fans the opportunity to unlock exclusive rewards and opportunities by holding Fan Token HRSE.
Those prizes include merchandise discounts, event tickets and shares in a horse-owning syndicate, while fans can participate in a virtual prediction game to win HRSE prizes.
The HRSE acts as a governing token that allows members to vote on decisions from “designing the jerseys to what horses should be selected during the draft.”
He said the winners' club “can be more daring in terms of voting than a Premier League team”. That's because the racing league is a “relatively new format and organization,” he said, which has led to a “disappointing” management experience for fan token holders in other sports, apart from the confusion of agreements and governing bodies.
The Racing League introduces team-based competition to horse racing, with 36 races in an easily recognizable league format. The move is aimed at expanding the sport's popularity, Racing League chief executive Jeremy Wray said. “A lot of people have the impression that racing is very professional,” he told Decrypt. “In fact, it's the second largest employer in the UK, deep in this sport.”
He explained that the team-based format was designed to make the sport “easy for people who are already immersed in horse racing” by allowing viewers to connect with the teams and follow them on their journey through the league. Through Champions League, fans can “focus on the people involved,” the platform said, adding that “people are always connecting and sharing their experiences.”
Future plans include a virtual racing game, which will initially take the form of a prediction game and eventually evolve into a “soccer manager-type, but for horse racing” experience, Fleetham said.
As well as ticket prizes, Fleetham said, Winners Club will “add more partners to the ecosystem over time”, including “hotels and other affiliate partners to support the tournament one day”.
Rye said future awards will allow fans in the winner's circle to “go down to the racetrack, see thousands of people in the background racing, working in the yard, watching the horses, the food items, the livestock — all the other little things that go on.”
“It's about understanding how people want to have fun, what they enjoy doing,” Wray said. “Find out what they like, see how many of them pigeonhole with what we've got, and we'll get them in.
He added that he was excited to see how Winners' Club “crosses the line between the digital fan and the person who is actually racing,” adding, “In my view, the ideas we have to engage people are endless.” in the sport.”
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