AGAINST the backdrop of a burgeoning sports betting market, predicted to exceed US$150 billion globally by 2030, the promotion of horse racing in the majority of jurisdictions has not developed a policy of expansion of the market.

Having looked at the strategies deployed by promoters on both sides of the Atlantic and in Asia, what ensues is a bias towards extracting more from existing customers with no thought given to the expansion of the base.

By training and experience, as a career marketer, this writer is aware of the need to pay careful attention to the commercial exploitation of products (goods and services) as it is necessary to expand consumer options. For this objective to be actualised, both sexes must be targeted individually and collectively.

From a marketing concept and perspective, except for the United Kingdom and Australia, generally and indeed globally, the promoters have all assumed that horse racing will forever be a male-majority pastime.

This position is obviously flawed.

In nearly all aspects of 21st-century political, economic, and social endeavours (including religion), women are assuming more important roles and increased levels of participation in leadership. The lingering negative assumptions about what women should or should not be involved in need to become a thing of the past.

The possibility that women, constituting more than 50 per cent of the world’s population and earning nearly 50 per cent of the global annual income collectively, could develop a serious interest in the gaming industry across all major sports has not yet dawned on the cohort of modern promoters of sports promoted for profit.

I wish to cite the UK and Australia as the consummate exceptions. Women were encouraged to wager, and, factually, the greatest-ever English reinsman, Lester Piggott, was promoted as the ‘housewives’ jockey’. With bets on horse racing in the UK offered at odds, the bookmakers were prepared to make a minimum stake unnecessary, and it was what these customers could afford or were prepared to wager to enjoy thoroughbred racing.

Further across Great Britain, organised bingo parties on weekends, patronised mainly by women, are an undying British traditional pastime. Culturally, this activity is as popular today as it has ever been and is unlikely to lose its appeal.

Here are two main factors influencing female participation in horse-racing gaming in the UK and in Australia. Digital convenience with smartphone accounts is most important as it facilitates access to betting platforms from anywhere in these jurisdictions. Betting is promoted on social media like TikTok and Instagram as an extension of social activity and lifestyle events.

Down Under, the establishment of initiatives such as Magic Millions Racing Women and My Race horse soliciting ownership of thoroughbreds, which Gary Peart, executive chairman of Supreme Ventures Ltd, has introduced here along with more female participation on the important race days as a selling point.

Former British colony Australia now leads the global female participation in sports gaming, with horse-racing support popular with both sexes, in equal proportion but more so exponentially with young females in recent times. There is no doubt that this can be duplicated globally with the right marketing thrust.

Going forward, I hope that in developing marketing strategies, promoters of horse racing will include the best practices so successful in Great Britain for nearly two centuries and are now viable in Australia to develop female participation.

There is a marketing strategy to enhance female participation, and a new betting option will possibly be available locally that will be irresistible as it will offer both entertainmentand the prospect of life-changing winnings.

Contact: wesmartin@horseracing.com