William Hill bets on virtual truth racing

1 October 2015
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Anyone who has been to a racecourse will know the excitement when the horses pound towards the surface line.

But this promotion code excitement of the trip is something that numerous clients who wager in stores or online do not experience.

Bookmaker William Hill is keen to recreate it with virtual truth innovation.

The UK's Gambling Commission said that it would be keeping track of innovations such as virtual truth to ensure that they did not motivate excessive gambling.

Using headsets, integrated with GPS racetrack data, it is offering clients the chance to see the race from the yohaig code jockey's viewpoint.
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"Currently you place a bet and not much occurs between that and the result," stated Crispin Nieboer, William Hill's director of development.

"We desire to bring consumers closer to the sporting action, to experience the thrill of the ride."

To evaluate the possibilities, the group at William Hill laboratories constructed a 3D mock-up of Kempton Park racecourse and collected live data, via GPS trackers fitted on horses, throughout a training race at the course.
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Combining the data produced a virtual race users can see via either Google Cardboard or an Oculus Rift.

The innovation is not yet available to the general public but was on show at an open day at the firm's innovation laboratory in Shoreditch.

Users first choose the horse they wish to race on. Accompanied by live commentary, wearers can turn and look at other horses in addition to triggering an information display about the horse's heart rate, stride and race position.

William Hill plans to add more courses and live races next year.

"Currently there are some spaces in the information so the horses suddenly speed up in a live race, however we want to have a proof-of-concept system prepared by Christmas," said Mr Nieboer.
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The strategy is to introduce the service as part of the William Hill app.
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"Users can select the choice to enjoy the race as a standard video or they can be the jockey," Mr Nieboer stated.
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It could also be available in some betting shops, stated Mr Nieboer, while Google Cardboard headsets were most likely to be provided out free at racecourses.

It is approximated that in the yohaig code UK about 350,000 people have a gaming addiction, with over ₤ 7bn invested annually.
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The proliferation of online betting has actually been blamed for making it much easier to gamble and some feel services such as virtual reality could contribute to the problem.

The market is regulated by the UK Gambling Commission, which stated that it "displays development in the gaming market in order to make sure operators continue to comply with the conditions of their licences".

"Operators are needed to ensure that they bet9ja's welcome offer gambling in a responsible manner, which will consist of offering tools to enable consumers to handle their gaming activity in addition to having policies and procedures in place to determine potentially troublesome behaviour and interact with clients who show that behaviour," a spokesman added.

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