You are the jockey in this innovative virtual reality app by William Hill to enable users to experience horse racing in a three dimensional virtual environment.
The UK betting giant’s 3D initiative aims to bring horse racing into the 21st Century, provide a fresh, modern, interactive experience and attract younger, millennial audiences to the world of racing (and betting).
The showcase of the initiative enabled the wearer to experience the 18.10 race at Kempton Park on 18 February 2015 not from the stands or the rails, but in the saddle of one of the competing thoroughbreds.
The experience also offers users a chance to place bets by looking at billboards featuring the horses’ names.
The project’s eventual objective is to move to a large scale roll-out that enables customers to experience live races in real-time.
The ‘Get in the Race’ project, being developed in partnership with production company Unit9, was launched as a prototype app at London’s Digital Shoreditch 2015.
William Hill is also offering an in-store Oculus Rift experience across the country.
Using real-time data sourced through GPS trackers on the horses and along the courses and combining it with immersive VR technology, users can experience what it feels like to be in the middle of a galloping chase.
The prototype VR headset is shaped to mimic a jockey’s helmet and it features a ‘head up display’’ which can be activated by the wearer simply by looking down at their horse. It enables users to get ‘jockey’s eye view’ of the horse from the saddle and to review a set of ride live performance data – such as the horse’s heart rate, stride length, distance remaining and race position.
Thus the objective is for customers to use either an economical smartphone-powered device (like Google cardboard) or a pricier 3D headset (like Oculus Rift) to experience the full power and excitement of a horse race.
Betting data shows that young adults are more interested in betting on sports such as football or tennis (with the exception of the Grand National) and horse racing faces a decline if this trend is not reversed.
‘Horse racing is a dying sport among millennials’, says William Hill’s innovation chief Jamie Hart at Digital Shoreditch.
‘One of the problems we’re seeing with horse racing is that we’re seeing a swing away to football, tennis and other sports. It isn’t really in touch with young people.’ he adds.
‘Get in the Race’ is the latest imitative to emerge from WiIliam Hill’s Shoreditch tech Lab and is part of the company’s umbrella strategy to develop new technologies in order to ‘enhance the historically “dry” betting process’.
‘This is all part of our plan to enhance what we call the thrill of the ride. Most people in betting don’t do much for the customer in between placing a bet and finding out about it, so we think this is a step in the right direction,’ outlines William Hill’s director of corporate development and innovation Crispin Nieboer.
‘People tend to see bookie shop – did you win or not – it comes down to that. That’s the opposite of say a Las Vegas [betting] experience, which is all about an entertaining experience that is also about winning. So that is what we are gearing towards.’
Unit9 creative director Henry Cowley says this project is indicative of the increasing trend for brands to solve business challenges and reach their goals through product-focused solutions rather than ad campaigns.
‘It is easy to spend a lot of money in VR especially if high end, but this is what is smart about the William Hill approach – we have kept it very agile and it is a minimum viable product so expenditure has not been that great,’ he states.
‘This has the potential to be full blown product and to help contribute to the bottom line. It is great for us to be able to work with them on what is not a new campaign but a product.
Driven by emerging and disruptive tech. VR is an important trend and there are a lot of brands looking at it. It will shift the needle in the long term – we are not sure quite how yet, but it will. So this is a great way for William Hill to get in and start to look at how it will shift its business model.’
Comment
Whether the sport that needs saving, or whether it just needs updating for the modern era is a major debate across the horse racing community – either way, this William Hill project should be admired for trying to drag racing from millennial obscurity.
Plus, if this prototype is a success, then surely it will extend the immersive, participatory experience to other sports and entertainment events – which may offer official partners a valuable sponsorship activation tool.
Virtual reality is everywhere across the activation landscape at the moment.
From Samsung and Marvel’s ‘Avengers VR Experience’, to O2’s England Rugby ‘Wear The Rose’ project and the Tate Gallery’s Minecraft ‘Virtual Art’ collaboration, virtual reality is fast becoming the key path to enhancing millennials’ event experiences.
We’ve been lucky enough to experience all of these initiatives and our view is – long may the trend continue.
Links
William Hill Technology & Innovation
http://www.williamhillplc.com/innovation/technology/
William Hill YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/user/williamhillNews
William Hill Twitter:
https://twitter.com/willhillbet
William Hill Instagram:
https://instagram.com/willhillbet/
Unit 9 Website:
Unit 9 YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/user/unit9
Unit 9 Google+:
https://plus.google.com/+Unit9/posts
Kempton Park:
