Credit: Innovators market tower
The Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) is a world-class horse racing, sports betting and entertainment organisation and one of the world’s leading charity donors. Its wagering activities include pari-mutuel betting on horse racing, the Mark Six lottery, and fixed odds football betting. We sat down with Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, CEO of the HKJC, to learn more about the Club and how it is using Nasdaq’s Longitude technology to rewrite the wagering industry.
Can you tell us a bit more about the HKJC?
The simplest definition of the Club is our purpose statement - we are a world-class racing club that acts continuously for the betterment of our society. We are home to some of the world’s best horses, top races and most exciting racecourse entertainment. We are also an industry leader in wagering and information technology. In fact Hong Kong racing has a growing fan base around the world.
Because of the success of our world-class racing, and because of our strong commitment to the community, we are able to generate substantial economic and social value. In 2017/18, we contributed HK$22.6 billion (US$2.88 billion) in tax to the government while our Charities Trust approved HK$4.2 billion (US$535 million) in donations. We are Hong Kong's largest single taxpayer while our Charities Trust is one of the world's top ten charity donors
How did you become interested in horse racing and what led you to become the CEO of the HKJC?
I’ve always been passionate about sport. I’m an avid football fan and played professionally for the German youth team. Not long after graduating from university, I had the opportunity to work with one of the biggest racehorse and breeding operations in Germany, which I ended up managing. That led to me becoming a board member of the German Breeders’ and Owners’ Association, the youngest board member of the German Jockey Club, and then Executive Vice Chairman and CEO of the German Jockey Club.
The opportunity to come to Hong Kong in 1998 was a real turning point. I had been to Hong Kong before and I was very impressed by the city’s dynamism and strong ‘can-do’ community spirit. I also saw a great deal of potential in the Club. I saw how it could become a leader not just in Asian but in world racing. I also deeply admired the Club’s strong community focus. These twin objectives – building the world-class quality of Hong Kong racing and on this basis expanding the Club’s community support – were foremost in my mind when I became CEO in 2007. I’m pleased to say that over the last ten years, the Club has not only become one of the world’s most admired racing organizations but has also quadrupled its charity donations.
What excites you most about the technological advances that the HKJC is using to improve the customer experience?
The Club has always been at the forefront in its use of technology. In 2014, we were the first racing organization in the world to utilise Longitude technology, which we successfully applied to a number of pools, ultimately enabling us to deepen our liquidity.
We are currently developing a new integrated customer information and wagering information system that will be more holistic, higher performing, and in combination with Longitude will enable us to offer a much more customer-centric service. We are very excited about the possibilities this will open for our customers.
What does innovation mean to you?
Innovation is about being the first to debut a new idea or way of doing things that disrupts the industry and yields benefits to your organisation. One of the Club’s most exciting innovations of recent years has been commingling, under which overseas racing fans wager via overseas partners on Hong Kong races. The resulting liquidity makes our racing highly attractive, to the extent that commingling was responsible for 13% of racing wagering turnover last year and is a major area of growth. Key to our success is the quality of our racing, our high standards of integrity, and wagering technology that is second to none. In fact Hong Kong is fast developing as a global hub for commingling.
How is the HKJC using technology to #rewrite tomorrow?
As a world-class organization, we are constantly looking for new technology that will enhance the customer experience. Longitude technology is an essential part of our efforts to become the best wagering platform in the world. We will continue to invest in our capabilities as we strive to stay up-to-date and ahead of our customers’ need for speed, convenience and connectivity.
To learn more about the HKJC, watch our latest video in the Nasdaq Tech Spotlight series.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
