British racing has always relied on its fans — from the dedicated punters who follow every race, to the crowds who flock to our biggest festivals, and the owners, trainers, jockeys and stable staff who make the sport what it is. But to secure racing’s future, we need to understand not just today’s fans, but tomorrow’s too.

That is the purpose of Project Beacon: the most in-depth piece of customer research ever undertaken in our sport.

More than 7,500 people across the UK and Ireland took part, making this a nationally representative study of how the public sees racing. It combined large-scale surveys with in-depth interviews, giving us the clearest picture yet of who our potential audiences are, what excites them, and what holds them back.

This summary document provides a wrap up of what Beacon is all about, but for more info read on!

What we learned

The research shows there are around 25 million adults across Britain and Ireland who are open to racing — people who don’t reject the sport, even if they’re not currently involved. Within that group lies huge potential. Nearly 17 million of them are either “potential fans” who have never really engaged with racing, or “casual fans” who only dip in occasionally.

To understand these people better, the research identified eight different audience types, ranging from “open-minded rookies” — younger people with little current involvement but who are willing to give racing a try — through to “social stakers”, who enjoy a small bet with friends, and “event lifers”, who love a big day out and see racing as part of that. At the other end are “serious betters” and “racing experts”, the committed audiences who already support much of the sport.

From this landscape, two groups stand out as priorities for growth: open-minded rookies and social stakers. Totalling an estimated 7.1m people, both offer significant potential if we can engage them more effectively.

Alongside them, three core audiences — serious betters, event lifers and racing experts, totalling 9m people — are crucial to retain, as they already provide the sport with vital support and stability.

It also shows us who these people are, how we reach them, what motivates them and what their barriers to entry are.

There’s a vast amount of data that the project has uncovered, which we cannot share in full as it is commercially sensitive. However, this evidence base is already shaping a new consumer strategy for the sport, aligned with the wider industry strategy.

The barriers we face

The research doesn’t just highlight opportunities and what motivates our audiences — it also shines a light on the challenges. The public still has concerns about horse welfare, which remains the single biggest barrier to engagement. Many also struggle to feel an emotional connection: they don’t always see the stories or the personalities that could draw them in. And for some, the “product” itself — the race-day experience or how racing is presented — isn’t always compelling enough.

These are serious issues. If we want more people to back racing, we have to face them directly.

The areas of focus

The research sets out six priority areas that the sport must focus on if we want to drive future engagement. These include:

• Improving the raceday experience and betting product for fans.
• Making ownership feel more accessible, at lower cost and easier to become involved in
• Shifting perceptions of welfare and growing understanding of the treatment of horses
• Demystifying the sport and making it easier to understand for newcomers
• Creating more of a structure to our racing, making the stories of each year easier to follow
• Creating stronger emotional connections to our races, people and stories.

Together, these changes are about making racing more open, welcoming and relevant to more people, while also protecting the core strengths that make the sport what it is today.

All of this work will take place while also protecting the sport’s current ecosystem and preserving what currently makes it great.

A head start

Beacon has also reaffirmed some long-recognised industry insights, while highlighting the value of initiatives that have already given the sport a head start.

The “Going is Good” promotional campaign, for example, closely reflects the main motivations that drive growth audiences to engage with racing. Alongside this, the HorsePWR campaign, alongside the inclusion of welfare messages in advertising, has reinforced the sport’s commitment to openness and responsibility.

Great British Racing’s efforts to promote jockeys and raise their profiles has been shown to be the correct direction of travel, with Beacon confirming that content focused on jockeys is the single most effective way to build connections with new audiences.

In addition, initiatives such as Premier Racedays and a sharper focus on the sport’s highlight events are helping to simplify structures, making racing more accessible and easier to follow. Complementing this, work on developing a simplified race card marks the first in a series of initiatives designed to demystify the sport and bring it closer to new fans.

All of these projects need far more work to hone and deliver them, and the insights from Beacon will assist with this.

What happens next

To take this forward, a Project Beacon delivery office is being established. Its role will be to co-ordinate work across the industry, set clear priorities, and ensure resources are directed to the right areas. This sits within the broader review of governance and marketing that is already underway across the sport.

This work would not have been possible without the support of the Horserace Betting Levy Board, who have been the principal funders of Project Beacon. Their backing has enabled us to build the most detailed understanding of our audiences that British racing has ever had.

Beacon in context

Beacon is just one part of the broader industry strategy, which also includes important work on participant wellbeing, environmental sustainability, and safeguarding the future of the thoroughbred in Britain. But it is a cornerstone. For the first time, we have hard evidence about how millions of people view racing, what excites them, and what puts them off.

The task now is to act on that knowledge — keeping our current fans while opening the doors to a new generation.

You can also learn more about the industry strategy itself.