July 2018

Well truth be told, I’d never even heard of Rob Tidy, but the scale of his win from $100, alongside his exasperated Fathers series of apologies for his stunning good luck, makes for enthralling viewing!

The long-overdue decision about recording the timing data and publishing it is finally here. Ascot will start publishing the data of the time a certain horse has covered a certain ground and the precise route. This way discussions about whether a horse was unlucky or it is a matter of other factors will end and there will be enough evidence to counter or confirm a debate.

This data will represent the horse while it is in progress and show a breakdown of the time the horses run. The thing is, Ascot has had the technology and some of the data for a while now but didn’t have enough data and partners in order to improve it. Now, they hope to start working with different partners in order to see what to do with the data and how useful it will be. Ascot along with their business partner Longines made an effort of two years with the goal to present the world with the furlong in each race, and attract a bigger audience of both racegoers and bettors.

The reason why it will display King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes is obvious, being the most prestigious and most visited one in Great Britain. It will make other audiences throughout the world see all the furlong times on TV, and hopefully convince other stakeholders and racecourses to join in. But most importantly, the Ascot team wants to deepen understanding of the race and stimulate the interest of more TV audiences and consequently bettors and betting partners.

Speaking about betting partners, they hope that the information they will display will be useful for them to make a betting turnover with it. Punters’ interests shift constantly. Casino betting is most popular in Britain at present, but learning roulette, poker, baccarat and blackjack strategy and rules, as well as odds, is a long done activity. Plus, as of 2018, the government’s regulatory rules are becoming stricter, this is the right time for the horse betting to flourish. After all, it has the Queen’s support, right?

So, Ascot’s main goal is to make the available data useful for betting partners by representing sectional times on the screens in real-time, and then, so that with that record detailed analysis can be made and put into context.

In all, although it is a big step to make, this initiative sounds promising and will most definitely arouse interest in both audiences and bettors. So far, it is one of the most frequented events in Britain, providing visitors with many activities to do in between races, like places for a picnic, cinema, shops, festivals, fireworks etc. This could definitely become a more internationalized event and gather people from all around the world, inform them about this years-long race and get to know the history behind it. This could do well to the country’s economy and tourism as well, meaning what Ascot hoped for can become so much more.