Over the course of Britain’s five most popular days of racing, Betfred’s Totepool offers the 300,000 guests of Royal Ascot an alternative to fixed odds, with pool (or tote) betting. This year, Sportech Racing // Digital was with Betfred at Royal Ascot, with Sportech’s Quantum™ System and Quantum Data Centers. Totepool (formerly UK Tote) is a division of Betfred, the 4th largest bookmaker in the UK, and sole operator of pool betting on British horse racing.
Sportech Racing // Digital was selected by Betfred for an ambitious project to transform their complex legacy betting systems with a view toward expanding their menu of betting products, improving the player experience, and finding new markets for their pools. The solution proposed to achieve this was Quantum™ System, a world-class betting platform that is deployed widely for Sportech’s customers throughout North America and Europe, as well as in Latin America.
A Tight Timeframe
The timeframe for implementing Quantum™ for Betfred was a challenge – definitive agreements were struck in July 2014 with the goal of launching the new system, complete with all of Betfred’s proprietary pools and bet types, ahead of Royal Ascot 2015, fewer than 11 months away.
The target date of Royal Ascot was significant because of the position this iconic race meeting holds in the global racing calendar. According to Ascot’s official website (ascot.co.uk), Royal Ascot is Britain’s most popular race event, with over 300,000 guests, and viewers in over 200 countries. Demand is high and the eyes of the racing world are on Royal Ascot every June.
Sportech sprung into action, dispatching experts from our global network of software, infrastructure and operations employee teams. These teams worked closely with Betfred to fully understand the challenges that confront them as they work to provide pools betting across 59 UK racecourses.
Within weeks, Sportech’s teams had completed a detailed specification and commenced development. By end of April 2015, Sportech successfully launched Quantum™ System for Betfred from our Quantum Data Center in Berlin. This system provided service first at Chelmsford City Racetrack, followed by Lingfield, then Ascot in the first week May, in the run up to Royal Ascot in June. At Royal Ascot, the system performed to expectations, providing Betfred with a successful event and an increase in turnover.
Sportech’s Global Quantum™ System
Sportech’s Quantum™ came to Totepool with a full kit of out-of-box tools and functionality – including full ITSP – on top of which Sportech customized the system to suit Betfred’s particular needs, including the addition of Betfred’s very successful proprietary pools like the Scoop6.
With this customization, Betfred’s proprietary pools now become part of Sportech’s global version of Quantum™ System and therefore available to Sportech’s entire global Quantum™ customer base. It is this kind of uniform application of a central system that will allow Betfred to expand the market for their pools and give their players new bets to enjoy from simulcasting partners located around the world.
Just the Beginning
Sportech’s partnership with Betfred isn’t over – in addition to providing long-term maintenance and support of the Quantum™ System, Sportech will now turn to providing Betfred with digital and on-track self-service solutions to further enhance the player experience at the 59 UK racecourses they serve.