William Hill Bets On Virtual Reality Racing

William Hill bets on virtual truth racing

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1 October 2015

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

But this promotion code excitement of the trip is something that many customers who wager in stores or online do not experience.

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

The UK's Gambling Commission said that it would be monitoring innovations such as virtual reality to ensure that they did not encourage extreme gambling.

Using virtual reality headsets, combined with GPS racetrack data, it is offering consumers the opportunity to see the race from the jockey's point of view.

"Currently you place a bet and very little takes place between that and the result," stated Crispin Nieboer, William Hill's director of development.

"We desire to bring customers closer to the sporting action, to experience the adventure of the trip."

To check the possibilities, the team at William Hill labs constructed a 3D mock-up of Kempton Park racecourse and collected live information, through GPS trackers fitted on horses, during a training race at the course.

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

The innovation is not yet available to the public but was on program at an open day at the firm's innovation lab in Shoreditch.

Users first choose the horse they desire to race on. Accompanied by live commentary, users can turn and take a look at other horses in addition to triggering an information display about the horse's heart rate, stride and race position.

William Hill prepares to add more courses and live races next year.

"Currently there are some gaps in the information so the horses suddenly speed up in a live race, however we want to have a proof-of-concept system ready by Christmas," said Mr Nieboer.

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

"Users can choose the alternative to see the race as a basic video or they can be the jockey," Mr Nieboer stated.

It could likewise be offered in some betting stores, said 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 people have a betting dependency, with over ₤ 7bn spent annually.

The expansion of online betting has been blamed for making it easier to bet and some feel services such as virtual truth could contribute to the problem.

The market is regulated by the UK Gambling Commission, which stated that it "screens development in the betting market in order to ensure operators continue to abide by the conditions of their licences".

"Operators are needed to make sure that they use gambling in a responsible way, which will consist of offering tools to permit clients to manage their gambling activity in addition to having policies and procedures in location to identify potentially troublesome behaviour and engage with clients who exhibit that behaviour," a spokesman included.