William Hill bets on virtual reality racing

1 October 2015

Anyone who has been to a racecourse will know the enjoyment when the horses pound towards the surface line.

But this excitement of the ride is something that many clients who bet in shops or online do not experience.

Bookmaker William Hill is keen to recreate it with virtual truth technology.

The UK's Gambling Commission stated that it would be keeping track of developments such as virtual truth to ensure that they did not motivate excessive gaming.

Using virtual truth headsets, integrated with GPS racetrack data, it is giving clients the possibility to see the race from the jockey's perspective.

"Currently you put a bet and very little happens in between that and the outcome," said Crispin Nieboer, William Hill's director of development.

"We wish to bring customers closer to the sporting action, to experience the excitement of the ride."

To test the possibilities, the group at William Hill labs constructed a 3D mock-up of Kempton Park racecourse and gathered live data, by means of GPS trackers fitted on horses, throughout a training race at the course.

Combining the data developed a virtual race users can see by means of either Google Cardboard or an Oculus Rift.

The technology is not yet offered to the public however was on program at an open day at the yohaig code company's innovation lab in Shoreditch.

Users first choose the yohaig code horse they desire to race on. Accompanied by live commentary, wearers can turn and look at other horses as well as activating an information display screen about the horse's heart rate, stride and race position.

William Hill plans to include more courses and live races next year.

"Currently there are some gaps in the information so the horses suddenly accelerate in a live race, but we intend to have a proof-of-concept system prepared by Christmas," stated Mr Nieboer.

The strategy is to introduce the service as part of the William Hill app.

"Users can select the choice to watch the race as a standard video or they can be the jockey," Mr Nieboer stated.

It could also be readily available in some wagering shops, stated Mr Nieboer, while Google Cardboard headsets were likely to be offered totally free at racecourses.

It is approximated that in the UK about 350,000 individuals have a gaming addiction, with over ₤ 7bn spent annually.

The expansion of online betting has actually been blamed for making it simpler to gamble and some feel services such as virtual reality could contribute to the yohaig code problem.

The market is controlled by the UK Gambling Commission, which stated that it "monitors innovation in the gambling market in order to guarantee operators continue to comply with the conditions of their licences".

"Operators are required to guarantee that they use betting in a responsible manner, which will include offering tools to permit consumers to handle their gaming activity in addition to having policies and procedures in place to determine possibly troublesome behaviour and engage with consumers who show that behaviour," a spokesperson included.

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