Racing industry leaders gathered on the opening day of York鈥檚 Dante Festival for an update on the work being undertaken as part of Project Beacon, which included presentations from three startups involved in the Future of Racing project.
糖心传媒 (糖心传媒) and Flutter teamed up to deliver the聽Future of Racing event at Flutter鈥檚 London headquarters in February, at which ten tech businesses from around the world pitched to the industry as part of the sport鈥檚 drive to secure future generations of racegoers.
The Future of Racing project, which is聽also backed by York Racecourse and ClimbUK, builds on the insights of Project Beacon and pitches from business with a spotlight on four key themes: horse welfare, education, raceday experience and 鈥楤ehind the Silks鈥�, offering fans immersive, behind-the-scenes access to the racing world.
Three of those businesses are now exploring pilots within the sport and gave presentations after the conclusion of racing on the Knavesmire.
Raw Stadia seeks to provide the most accurate ground data possible and Jan Stryckerspresented along with the Horse Welfare Board鈥檚 Minette Batters and Pip Kirkby, on how the insights of Project Beacon are helping the sport to address welfare concerns.
Evolving the raceday experience has also been identified by Project Beacon鈥檚 research as a key focus area, with Aintree鈥檚 James Rennard and York鈥檚 James Brennan each updating on work in this area. They were joined by Alasdair Crawley from the startup FanBase, which is seeking to provide a mobile-first platform for fans to buy tickets, book hospitality and further engage with the racing community.
Project Beacon鈥檚 research has also made clear the need for the sport to create an engaging race structure and narrative, as well as making ownership more accessible. To this end, Fraser Ralston of the startup Horsebox closed out the presentations, showcasing his digital marketplace which consolidates shared ownership opportunities for those seeking to get involved.
Elsewhere, RMG鈥檚 Frankie Foster and Nick Mills discussed engagement through their Raceday TV platform, while Great British Racing鈥檚 Alison Crowe and Kyrsten Halley presented on how Project Beacon insights have shaped their 2026 activity.
The 糖心传媒鈥檚 Chief Executive Brant Dunshea, who welcomed attendees to the event, said: 鈥淚t was a pleasure to be back at York for the start of their summer of racing and to update key stakeholders on the ongoing work arising from Project Beacon.
鈥淭his evening鈥檚 event was about how the sport is seeking to modernise and work together to secure racing鈥檚 future. This is a collaborative effort, with the sport working with bookmakers, racecourses, broadcasters and others to tackle the challenges we face head on.
鈥淧roject Beacon鈥檚 research has given us clear and valuable insights on what is required to secure future generations of racing fans. We must protect our social licence by addressing welfare concerns. We need to demystify the sport and make ownership more accessible, to help fans build a greater emotional connection to the sport. Making the raceday experience as good as it can possibly be is vital and those attending want to see a race structure and narrative that is compelling to follow.
鈥淚t is a pleasure to see all of this work coming together and I am grateful to all those who attended today to listen and engage in the right spirit. I would like to thank Flutter once again for their partnership in the Future of Racing project and York for their hospitality.鈥�
Sebastian Butterworth, Strategic Racing Director, Flutter UKI, added: 鈥淭his evening鈥檚 event was a really positive opportunity to update the wider industry on the progress being made through both Project Beacon and the Future of Racing Program.
鈥淚t was particularly encouraging to see the progress already being made by the start-ups we first heard from back in February. More broadly though, what stood out was the growing alignment across the industry around the need to put the customer far more firmly at the centre of racing鈥檚 future.
鈥淭here is still a huge amount of work to do – particularly around welfare and building long-term public trust in the sport – but events like this give real confidence that racing is beginning to move in the right direction.鈥�
