News
Friday July 31 2026
Can Digital Simulations Grow Horse Racing’s Fan Base?
Headlines around horse racing’s resurgence have centred on rising racecourse attendances. Naturally, this is where the focus lies, with patrons who actually go to the tracks pumping much more money into these essential venues than just their ticket prices and betting slips. Even with this being the case, there’s another format of horse racing that’s gaining traction with audiences and exciting those within the sport proper. Digital simulations of horse racing and virtual horse racing are becoming top picks for several events and occasions, helping to expand the accessibility of the sport beyond the tracks.
Accessible, Customisable, and Fun
Similar to casino nights or escape rooms, virtual horse racing events have become very popular picks among group organisers. Events like At the Races from White Rhino give groups six races over an hour, with teams getting their own rooms to create their strategies. As the odds change throughout a race, when bets are placed is crucial.
Corporate Race Night from New Wave Events is another prime example of this interest in virtual horses. They claim to have over 200,000 participants each year, changing the chosen venue into an immersive horse racing experience around their core digital racing product on-screen.
There are even wholly online-based forms of virtual racing events. Go To Events gives everyone in the game a stack of “fun money” to bet across the customisable race programme. Remotely, between five and 1,000 people can play across the hour, eventually finishing with a victor who’d won the most from the races.
While corporate and team-building events have been the focus of many of these examples, they can also be leveraged for charity and fundraising. After all, the UKGC even offers guidance on running events like these for charity without a licence, with virtual races being among the options with live and recorded races.
Does it Translate into Real Fans?
The value in virtual and digital horse racing options is in the exposure to the sport and the entertainment value that it delivers. It’s a gateway to the real sport, even if very subtle. People who attend these events find themselves learning how the event works in a no-stakes or low-stakes environment for a bit of fun.
Whilst this won’t get everyone who attends to go to the races, it at least plants the seed for the idea to do so when they’re looking to set up an event of their own or celebrate an occasion. Exposure to the sport and the potential enjoyment of it is key, which is why horse racing revels in having other related digital products available.
Helping the sport to reach new audiences, and to entertain fans who find themselves in this different bracket of entertainment, the library of online slots has several horse racing-themed titles. Slingo Constitution Hill, Big Bass Return to the Races, and Paddy’s Payouts Race for Riches headline the ever-growing collection of these games.
All of these digital formats of horse racing combine to subtly help to promote the sport in different ways to racing festivals and highlight videos online. They enjoy these different formats, it puts the sport in a favourable light, and it at least increases the chances of each individual, eventually, going to a race day.
It’s very difficult to judge just how many attendees at racetracks were encouraged to attend by their digital interactions with the sport. Even so, attendances are on the rise, more and more people are interested in the sport in different forms, and all of it is good for horse racing.
