We expect Racing Digital to be fully developed and tested by the end of 2026, with a view to launching in early 2027 at an appropriate stage in the racing calendar. 

The past few years have been spent on complex development work to build the infrastructure and framework of the RD Hub. Our team has also already delivered a fixture planning tool, which for the past three years has been used to support the development of the fixture list, helping to significantly shorten and simplify this planning process.

This is a complex digital project, and it is no secret that it has been challenging. However, it became clear earlier this year that the approach was not practical due to the difficulties in integrating with the existing industry database, which has been in place for over 20 years.

Pressing ahead would have resulted in a sub-optimal product for service users. Therefore, we made the decision to pause the roll-out of the new RD Hub and make broader changes to the organisation to ensure we are ideally positioned to deliver, at speed.

We appreciate how frustrating the delays – and lack of engagement – have been and apologise for any inconvenience this may cause. But we believe that this strategy is in the best interests of the delivery of Hub, and more broadly to the racing industry, ultimately providing a better system for British racing and the people who will be reliant on it.

We have an agile team of in-house software, engineering, data, cybersecurity, and other specialists, supported by flexible contract workers to ensure we can adapt and refocus our efforts depending on the requirements of the project. Racing Digital is also stocked with racing fans, and some of our people were involved in the development of the existing Racing Admin system, meaning we are well versed in the options – and limitations – of that platform. Racing Digital is headed up by Rob Glenister, our Chief Operating Officer, who has worked on the Hub and within the industry for several years, and subsequently has a deep and acute understanding of the need for modernisation. 

You can find out more about our senior team by visiting the ‘Our Team’ page.

Once launched, the Hub will improve how people complete the racing-related administrative tasks that allow everyone to participate in our sport, simplifying management processes and making things easier for all users, as well as enabling the more intelligent and effective use of data. Crucially, it will do this on a technology platform that sets British Racing up for long-term success, ready to adopt and embrace future technological developments, and which supports the modernisation of the industry.

The Hub will aid all participants at a broad level by optimising and streamlining many of the currently time-consuming processes facing agents, trainers and owners, and all stakeholders, but also tackle some of the more acute challenges they face. These include, for example, the issue of a trainer entering a horse in a race for which it isn't qualified, so the trainer then has to pay a charge of £65 and put up with the horse's name being printed among the entries with "nq" next to it or pay £90 and have the entry expunged. As a recent Racing Post article suggested, ‘a better system would flag up the problem before the entry was completed’, and this is exactly what the Racing Digital Hub will do.

It is these types of small but incremental and impactful improvements – in combination with the more holistic tech-backed evolution of racing administration – where the Hub will have the biggest impact.  

In addition, and as we will reveal in the coming months, the Hub will allow all industry stakeholders to manage their activity more effectively and coherently, consolidating previously fragmented activities into one platform.

Improving the current system wasn’t an option, and all industry stakeholders recognise that a modern, innovative solution is required to upgrade administrative management more effectively, and to provide a technology platform that sets British Racing up for long-term success, ready to adopt and embrace future technological developments, and which supports the modernisation of the industry.

A fundamental pillar of the industry strategy is to identify modern ways to engage with our participants, reduce the cost of ownership, and embrace better technology in the sport, whilst also maximising the benefits that access to structured and clean data will have for racing, and all domestic and international media and betting partners. The Racing Digital Hub will mean the sport ultimately has a solid, recognised technology stack, enabling the industry to explore and embrace emergent technologies such as generative AI in the future.

Simply bolting on new functionality to the existing system would only have delayed the problems being faced and added to the financial challenges of replacing the platform in the future.

As well as progressing with our development activity and new timeline, a core focus for Racing Digital in 2026 is to more extensively engage with participants, customers and stakeholders across the industry. This has been done on a fragmented basis over the last year, but the aforementioned changes, combined with the creation of new roles within our team, give us a foundation to host regular sessions, demo the product, gain feedback and adapt our approach accordingly.

 We will provide a clear timeline for regular engagement with all key stakeholders in the coming months that will significantly boost the visibility of the organisation and the Hub, as a whole. We will also be producing regular updates on our website and adding new content to show everyone the progress that our team is making.

The Hub, once launched, will support the broader modernisation of racing and help to streamline previously fragmented processes around fixture bookings, entries and declarations, and essentially all of the existing administration-related challenges that take up time and resources away from trainers, jockeys, agents, secretaries, and everyone working in British racing.  It will also enable a far more effective use of data than ever before and bring the sport in line with other comparable markets. The Hub represents a major step change for racing and once implemented and widely adopted it will drastically upgrade the management of the entire sport.Item description

Racing Digital is a limited company established as a 50/50 joint venture between Weatherbys and the BHA. The company is led by COO Rob Glenister, and our board is formed of members from both our parent organisations and representatives from across the racing industry