GTH: Head-to-Head team based racing.

GTH 2 teams racing for points.

GTH spectators cheering for their teams.

Global Team Horse Racing (GTH) is an award-winning, fan-focused, radically innovative, sports entertainment business. Leading the #RacingRevolution.

LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM, June 23, 2023/EINPresswire.com/ — There is shock and dismay at the news that horse racing in Singapore will be coming to an end in October 2024. Several reasons have been bandied about, including the always popular, ‘corruption and mismanagement’, but the Singapore government has stated that it needs the Turf Club’s 120-hectare site to meet future land use needs.

Dig a little deeper and the truth is that attendance and revenues at the Singapore Turf Club have declined rapidly, warranting the government’s dismissal of the sport’s proud, 180-year history in the city state.

The sounding of the death knell for Singapore racing was unavoidable: Horse racing’s inability to attract young new fans in recent times means that its foundations were gradually eroded, and the bottom fell out, with no new blood to stop or buffer the collapse. Coupled with increased pressure from animal rights activists, the survival of racing in jurisdictions across the globe is now under severe threat.

Here’s the wake-up call: The noblest sport of them all has reached danger zones around the globe. If traditionalists and older fans believe that Singapore will be a rare exception and that there will be compassion or assistance for its survival elsewhere, they have a surprise coming! Aside from the members of its current, declining fan base, nobody will care and, as seen in Singapore, action to stop racing will be taken swiftly and without mercy.

There is no doubt that a steady increase in support from young people, interest in racehorse ownership, sponsorships from youthful business owners, and tangible growth prospects would’ve gone a long way in persuading the Singapore government to halt or alter their plans. Herein lies the lesson after the multiple warnings sounded. Racing needs innovation and change. Now, more than ever!

We live in a rapidly changing, increasingly digitally connected world, and horse racing has barely changed for over a hundred years resulting in a sport increasingly irrelevant to younger audiences.

Other sport and entertainment businesses have been working relentlessly on acquiring young fans from the earliest possible age. From live sports, streaming services, movies, television, or concerts, all are fighting to attract a new audience and be successful. The key to this success is change. Those that have revolutionised their rules, format, and approach to appeal to a wider audience, have not only survived but also thrived. Ultimately, innovation is the bottom line in a competitive landscape.

Global Team Horse Racing (GTH) is leading the horse racing revolution. GTH takes the traditional, long day at the races and transforms it into a unique, team-based, exciting, family-orientated event.

Built around regional teams of jockeys, GTH packs 8 races into just 2 and a half hours at night under lights. GTH is a fast-paced, exciting spectator sport that merges live and digital elements into an entertainment product that is broadcast across multiple platforms, attracting, and engaging a younger, more diverse, and globally connected fan base.

GTH is re-invigorating an industry that has been under severe strain for years. The GTH Live Series in Durban, South Africa last year broke GTH into the mainstream world, received widespread accolades, and won Event of the Year at the Hollard Sport Industry Awards, beating the Sevens Rugby World Cup Final in Cape Town in the process.

This sought-after award was a massive accomplishment and proved that there is a way to breathe life into racing with fresh thinking, innovative application, and a focus on an eager new audience.

Even flagship racing events like Royal Ascot and the Kentucky Derby are facing serious challenges from animal rights activists which must be addressed by building a massive new community of young participants who engage and fight for their sport. This is a key issue being addressed by all successful sport rights holders and concerns children.

Young fans are targeted because they are the base for the survival and growth of sport. The first objective is to make their stars heroes for young fans. Children are most likely to follow a sport when they recognise and admire individuals within that sport. Next, sport businesses ardently encourage participation. They want children playing their sport. Junior football, basketball, and tennis along with school soccer, swimming, and athletics, inter alia, provide opportunities for attracting new fans as they learn to understand and enjoy the sport through participation. The GTH Junior Riders programme sees training and racing leagues for children implemented with the end goal being a junior programme in every country in which it operates.

The global spectator sports market reached a value of nearly $174.28 billion in 2022. Racing must tap into this market if it is to thrive and can only do so through radical innovation, proper management, and investment and sponsorship from the corporate world.

The GTH team are experienced, sport and business professionals shaking up a traditionally rigid sporting code, building a fan-first, high-tech, live product perfect for broadcast on multiple platforms.

Olympic Gold medallist Michael Johnson, in a Twitter discussion on how to improve athletics, noted that the basic profit formula for pro-sports is a quality product, leading to a growing fan base and then to media rights and sponsors. He noted that fans are critical in the formula. “The only way to attract media and sponsors is through amassing a large and growing fanbase to prove the sport has changed!”

GTH is racing’s version of Johnson’s blueprint for athletics. It makes the racing experience come alive because it is super-fast with short intervals, team-based with a variety of interchangeable options to keep things exciting for spectator and sponsor, family and media-friendly for attracting a potential mass of new viewers.

Sports, along with technology and the media landscape, are forever evolving. Those that fail to adapt, risk becoming obsolete. Those that have revolutionised their rules, format, and approach to appeal to a wider audience, have not only survived but also thrived. Ultimately, innovation is the bottom line in a competitive landscape. GTH is leading the racing revolution.

Angus Campbell
Global Team Horse Racing
[email protected]
Visit us on social media:
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Instagram
YouTube
TikTok
Other

GTH | 2022 Post Series Video