Top 20 Horse Racing Sites Compiled by Tristan Homsi

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Samuel Powell
6 years ago
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1 Based on 3 properties: - Website design - Popularity - Relevance to racingfuture.com Top 20 Horse Racing Sites Compiled by Tristan Homsi Ordered roughly from best to worst, although different sites have different benefits. THE KENTUCKY DERBY Very BIG Images throughout the website, setting the context of each page News articles are all tied to their own images- done very, very well so that you know exactly what each article is about Still not too much going on to confuse or overwhelm a visitor Effective sliding animations Gives you direct way to form a party with your friends, making it look fun and easy SANDOWN RACETRACK Manages a lot of content very well Again with very big banners, even if they re not in the foreground High quality, crisp images These tracks seem to be integrating a festive, party atmosphere with their horse-racing. On their front pages they advertise musical acts and Ladies nights in tangent with their horse-racing. They seem to be pushing to make a night/day out betting on horses to be just as good as going to the bar or a concert with your friends. RACING POST NEWS HUB The most popular online hub for horse racing Has video streams, commentary Has mobile app to help fans and betters Keeps track of all races worldwide Site design is poor, but the content makes up for it SWEDISH HORSE RACING Simple menu bars, with more in depth sections inside of them Keeps the feeling simplified while still allowing visitors to access many, many pages Newsletter is very appealing Has how to play section Again, very image focused, with not too many long paragraphs and big bold titles It immediately offers you things to do: Become a partner, where to play Gives you places to belong: for partners, for players

2 ASCOT RACETRACK Very well designed Note sliding banner, not fading Images are also much bigger and high resolution These tracks seem to be integrating a festive, party atmosphere with their horse-racing. On their front pages they advertise Food & Wine as well as Summer Cinema and musical acts to go with their horse racing. This again reinforces the night out betting to be just as good as a bar or concert. NEW YORK RACING ASSOCIATION - BELMONT RACETRACK Has talking horses section which includes horse wagering 101 and FAQ at Has schedules and leaderboards BIG images again, drawing in visitor DAILY RACING FORM One of the most popular horse racing sites in the world, it s the site of their newspaper Just has A LOT of information on everything: handicapping, entries, results. Everything an everyday horseracing follower would want to check out If you want to get people coming back, give them the things they need to check Learning section PARTY POKER ONLINE - COMPETITION Has promotions and events on home page Gives visitors an immediate way to get involved with the community Has Blog+more tab, to give a look into the Poker Community Gives concrete reason why poker is the best gambling sport to play Also has tutorial series on how to play the game of poker for beginners, improving your skills for intermediates and advice for masters. So there is something for everyone to learn and become more engrossed in the sport. OLG s LOTTOMAX PAGE A look at one of the competitors to horse racing, specifically at how they open their doors to new gamblers. They have the video walkthrough of how to play lottomax, as well as clear cut instructions As a beginner, this appeals to me greatly because I don t have to figure out anything myself Makes it less scary If you really want to push forward with the idea of teaching the new generation, something like this would be great 2

3 FRANCE GALOP THE GOVERNING BODY OF FRENCH HORSERACING Very big images Not too complicated or too much information at once, minimalistic Very popular on facebook, fans. Tells you what to do: click here!, Discover! Again focuses on making a day out racing to be a fun activity for young people with DJ nights and the like. They even have trailers for their events on facebook. RACING NETWORK AUSTRALIA One of the most visited horse racing websites Overly crowded, not that good of website design, but they control how all of Australia watches their horse racing Because people need to know race schedules and when to watch, so they have to visit If you have information like that, people have to come to your site, and they might just stay for more CHURCHILL DOWNS RACETRACK BIG banner images Tells you what to do: Lean more, Purchase tickets, etc. Gives statistics, handicapping, specifications Focuses a lot on the fun of the visit and the day or night out HORSE RACING NATION FAN CENTERED HORSE RACING COMMUNITY Sliding banner, not fading, BIG images Keeps track of horse rankings Has a feed of social network posts coming from all of the different racetracks and racing leagues Has Stakes tracker and Handicapping sections BBC HORSE RACING Big hub for news on horse racing, everyday thousands and thousands of people check here Best put together out of all of the news sites Focuses on large images Updated frequently Has direct focus on each part of horse racing Doesn t mix news with UK results or with World Results HORSE RACING LEAGUE FOLLOW CHAMPIONSHIP HORSES BEHIND THE SCENES Sliding banner Keeps everything simple and separate, not too crowded and only has two columns High quality, crisp images 3

4 SINGAPORE S TURF CLUB BIG images Has schedules of all upcoming races, even the ones not in Singapore Sliding banner TAB ONLINE SOUTH AFRICAN HORSE RACING NEWS Most popular horse-racing website in South Africa Although the layout is too crowded and the website a bit outdated, it s content is very good Has places to learn betting, learn racing, live odds and results, statistics and more Makes it a place betters NEED to go to WOODBINE ENTERTAINMENT Very minimalist homepage Caters very well to its audience who already knows where they are and what they re looking for Wouldn t cater that well to fresh newcomers to horse racing Divide up their sections well GOODWOOD RACECOURSE Many big images on home page, giving a direct look into the life at their racecourse. ALBERTA QUARTER HORSE RACING ASSOCIATION Close to the same as racingfuture, done pretty well Offers the visitor to click on things, with buttons such as See more Highlights, Read it online now and Learn more A lot of the time visitors don t really know what they re looking for and need to be pushed to where they want to go 4

5 General Things to Keep in Mind -Never have too much going on in each page. Minimalism and simplicity are the biggest popular trends in websites right now. Looking at the original design shows better use of these. -BIG images and MORE of them, which draw the viewer into real life feelings and the ideas expressed by the site, as opposed to just the text. Almost no page should be devoid of an image relating to the topic. -Have more content on EDUCATION and making newcomers to the sport feel comfortable. This could work very well: have a series of pages on how to play/begin horseracing, to get newcomers into it, and then advertise that page on facebook. -Continually prove that horse-racing is the best sport to play -Enforce the idea that a night out at the racetrack or betting on horses with your friends is just as good as going to the bar or a casino. It should be another one of those options. That s what many racetracks (Ascot, Goodwood, Sandown, Dubai) are trying to do and it seems to be working. This could be the key to attracting younger audiences who just want to go out and have a good time. -Clear messages on front page, getting to point. In the original design, what is the sport of thoroughbred horse racing?. -Commands and statements. Instead of just expecting the visitor to know what they want to do, you have to direct them to tasks, with links to other pages and statements. i.e Catch up on news, Share this, Learn how to play. -Don t mix goals and subjects, ie keep Ontario Advocacy separate from worldwide horseracing news -Daily updated news on the home page, which people will come back for. Things like the horse-racing commercials from around the world are perfect. Articles should have a spotlight on the homepage, as opposed to just small links and thumbnails. -Articles should be more visually appealing, using more images, bold text, captions and headlines as opposed to just paragraph after paragraph 5

6 Specific, Easy Changes for RacingFuture.com -Create a section for education on horse-racing -Merge the two left columns on the homepage. BIG images and headlines are successful, not many different small ones. If there were just a big image, a headline and a sentence summary for 5 different articles on the front page it would look a lot better than the jumble of articles currently there. -Start offering race and events schedules -Have the banner only on the home page -Have an article discussing a night out at the racetrack, and how it can be just as good as going to a bar, casino or concert. -Make banner slide as opposed to fade, have a bit less time for every slide -Newsletter: Make it look appealing and give people reason to sign up -Dropdown menu should have some kind of fade or animation -Fixed header bar -High resolution images -Mobile support -Make menu buttons a bit wider/bigger, the empty space looks bad at the top right 6

7 Learning Pages: Good video series on how to handicap and have a day out racing Has talking horses section which includes horse wagering 101 and FAQ Swedish horseracing s guide on how to play there This website doesn t primarily deal with horse-racing, but they have an example of a very good article. It would also help to take note of how many images they use as that can help with article in general. Some very straight-forward tutorials, with a very useful page on all of the horse-racing terms 7

8 Online radio stations: The name is self-explanatory they are fairly popular and have a team of 11 people Broadcasts every weekday, usually just discussing current and upcoming races Broadcasts three hours a day, five days a week. Run by Steve Byk Interviews with many personalities, top handicappers and race writers 40,000 listeners weekly. Schedule looks like: Mondays Xpressbet's Johnny D Weekend Recap with Winning Connections The White Stuff with Jon White Tuesdays NYRA Spotlight with Andy Serling Horse Health Today with Dr. Steve Allday Wednesdays Adena Springs presents Our Industry with Satish Sanan Equidaily's Seth Merrow RMTC Conversation (Every 6-8 weeks) Thursdays Vegas Racebook with Rich Eng Shedrow Confidential with Steve Haskin Weighing in with Tony Black Fridays In-house handicapper Gus Alonso Derby Watch with DRF National Correspondent Jay Privman Turf and Surf: Left Coast Connection with Rick Hammerle Weekend Preview with Nick Tammaro, DRF's Mike Beer, Jay Frederick Very popular Australian horse racing network Broadcasts 24/7 with different shows such as: RSN Breakfast with Chrisso & McGuane Racing Ahead Winners 8

9 RSN Racing Sports Overnight Allsports On The Punt The Thoroughbred Correct Weight The Family Counsellor Friday Follow on Carnival All of the radio broadcasts are put into podcast form and archived so that anyone visiting their website can listen to any past broadcast Based in Halifax, UK Centered around their advice and racecard data they have to help betters do better Broadcasts once a day, usually talking about the major events of the day. *All of these radio stations have ways to tune into their shows via their website as well as more traditional frequencies. They also all have their own social media pages. Twitter - It is already pretty good with the retweets and article postings - I would recommend changing the name from Dennis Mills to just Racing Future, as it avoids confusion. Most companies and websites have their website name as the twitter name as opposed to whoever runs the website - Also twitter contests are never a bad idea, getting people to retweet you in order to win tickets to a horse racing event or something like that. Facebook - Already done very well, the statuses are very good - Upload more photos instead of just statuses. Photos are the center of everything on facebook, and if people like your photo they will share it with all their friends. It s the absolute best way of free advertising to a large audience - Photo ideas: o Some statistic about horseracing with a motivational image 9

10 o Good, high quality shots from important races o A picture about the joy of winning money betting on horses o An image with the 3 easy steps to betting on horses or something similar - All of these can have links in their description to Learn more to the racingfuture website. - Especially the education on how to bet on horses could be very popular if done properly 10

Experience from a Media Company in Americas by Mr. David NATHANSON, CEO, TVG

Experience from a Media Company in Americas by Mr. David NATHANSON, CEO, TVG Mr. NATHANSON started by showing a brief video about TVG. The World s Largest Horseracing Network Covers the world of horseracing