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British Horseracing Authority

Enabling precision in British horseracing: Faster, accurate decisions with advanced admin systems.

Client

British Horseracing Authority

Sector

Sport

Services

Bespoke Software Consultancy

Software Design

Bespoke Software Development

Software Testing

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A day at the races now runs more smoothly, with thousands of racing decisions supported by a single powerful admin system.

Things move pretty fast in horseracing – and not just on the track. Ensuring that the high regulatory standards of British racing are upheld requires constant vigilance from the British Horseracing Authority’s (BHA’s) Stewarding teams, who manage and review all of the racing action each day on courses across the country.

To manage these decisions, the Stewarding teams working on each racecourse must quickly process a large amount of information and take the appropriate actions efficiently and effectively. With so much data to be taken on board however, BHA needed to develop a powerful piece of kit to support this process.

That’s exactly what we delivered.

The bespoke administration system we built enables information to be recorded in real-time and stored centrally, making it instantly accessible to everyone involved in a coherent and usable format. Driven by the bespoke development of a sophisticated rules engine, the Stewarding Team can be confident in the accuracy of their decisions; this helps minimise error, delay and administration, and keep the focus on what’s most important: the racing.

We’re helping BHA make the right choices in often challenging situations.

Facts about the British Horseracing Authority

cases

3.5bn

Industry

emoji_people

17K

Employees

currency_pound

£35bn

Invested to veterinary research

Dealing with the data deluge

To get to grips with the often complex and highly specialised rules of racing, our bespoke software consultants travelled to a number of racecourses to see for themselves how the Stewards Room team worked, and what challenges they faced.

What was immediately obvious was the sheer amount of data being handled by them on a daily basis, from profiles of the thousands of horses and hundreds of jockeys in the sport to the details of race incidents. Through our delivery of a central, web-based administration system, the number of system applications required to record and access this data has been reduced from ten to just one – seriously streamlining how things work.

We also made it easier for the Stewarding teams to apply the information they gather, safeguarding the accuracy and precision of their Stewards Enquiries.

By integrating a sophisticated bespoke rules engine into the administration system, the Stipes are able to confirm quickly and easily which actions are open to them given the particular jockey, trainer and horse involved in the enquiry. Any previous restrictions and sanctions are taken into account, ensuring that the Stewards have all the validation they need to make such important decisions.

Pass it on

There are multiple fixtures everyday throughout the UK, and jockeys will often ride in races at multiple courses. To make sure that penalties such as fines and riding suspensions are appropriately upheld across these different locations, the system provides shared, real-time updates regarding the latest decisions, so that teams, regardless of where they are working, can be certain they’re reacting to the very latest information.

Supporting a national industry

The UK’s £3.5 billion horseracing industry is supported by the thousands of decisions made each year by the British Horseracing Authority’s Stewards – decisions which can now be made faster and more accurately thanks to the bespoke software solution we delivered. Now that’s what we call making a difference.

Results

The work we did for the British Horseracing Authority has certainly made a difference to the day-to-day running of races up and down the country:

Talk to one of our digital experts

Pete Withers-Jones

Head of Development

Do you have an idea or a project you need support with?


Pete Withers-Jones leads Box UK’s Development Practice, and has over 20 years of experience in software development, working across various industries and technologies.

Book a meeting with Pete

Or call us on 020 8098 2093

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