Wednesday 11 February, 2026 – The key to driving long-term engagement with horse racing in an increasingly competitive attention economy is to provide fans with unforgettable raceday experiences which are backed up by compelling digital assets and strong storytelling, the 41st Asian Racing Conference heard in Riyadh.
Mr Gillon McLachlan, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, Tabcorp, said he took over a business which was rooted in its traditional image and needed to change its strategy to embrace the opportunities presented by storytelling and becoming fully immersed in the raceday experience instead of a ‘passive’ sponsor.
“Someone’s going to make the change for you if you don’t get ahead. We needed storytelling so we started with brand. Brand is everything - we went younger, louder, bolder. And if I thought 18 months ago that I'd have young women on racecourses wearing TAB merchandise proudly, I would have taken that every day,” he said.
“Today, we activate our brand consistently across all of our channels. We're part of the entertainment part of the story. We have an emotional connection with the individual, they're looking to connect with stories. We need clear points of differentiation as we face a global market where our competitors are unbelievably quick to develop products and to talk to the customers with their experiences in the global space.”
Ms Terecina Kwong, Executive Director, Membership and Customer Excellence, The Hong Kong Jockey Club, said digital-first remained the right approach for the Club but racing authorities should not underestimate the need to educate audiences about the sport.
Citing the use of AI-driven form videos and explainers, and activations such as Happy Valley’s Happy Wednesday events, she said many fans are discovering the sport and need help to navigate some of its complexities that many in the sport take for granted.
“We ask ourselves, ‘How can we make everything easy and accessible via mobile?’ It’s not an easy sport to understand so to reduce friction we created bite-sized, mobile-driven short clips to discover and explain the sport. Gamification also makes people feel engaged. Experience first. Digitally enhanced. Socially valuable,” she said.
She also said customer reviews were an incredibly valuable driver of sentiment, rather than specific channels or platforms. The best way of encouraging continued engagement is to reduce friction and ensure customers have an experience which rivals anything other competitors can offer.
Mr Bill Carstanjen, Chief Executive Officer, Churchill Downs, said the Kentucky Derby’s approach was to create community touchpoints digitally as well as physically on and off the course, and ensure fans feel at the heart of such an iconic celebration of the sport.
“We do not run a programme to bring in celebrities, we’re lucky enough to have them come to us. We want everyone that comes to the track to feel like a celebrity. We want everybody to feel on Derby Day they can be whoever they want to be and then we segment this very carefully so we can mould and shape different experiences to find an offering that fits for everybody,” he said.
