RaceCaller aims to capitalise on interest in Cheltenham festival

A social platform aimed at racing fans is hoping to capitalise on the excitement surrounding Cheltenham next week.

RaceCaller, which allows horse racing fans to connect and compete with each other, is aiming to make next week’s event “the most social Cheltenham yet”.

The web-based platform allows fans to share tips, view comments on horses and build up a reputation through some successful predictions, earning bragging rights and a few perks along the way.

Co-founder and managing director Cillian Barry said the site racecaller.comgets about 400,000 unique users in a typical month, a figure that can more than double when the Grand National and Cheltenham are running.

Although the majority will use the site to find out about horses, a small number of hardcore users – he estimates about 6 per cent – will be very active, playing free tipping games, winning bragging rights and prizes ranging from VIP access to courses to betting credit.

“That gamification is important to the overall system; it lets us show who the good tipsters are,” he said. “That’s important in any social platform. It lets people discover who they should listen to.”

Peer recognition is something people hold in high regard, Mr Barry said. “The community side is obviously important. That’s the connecting bit where you can go in and chat about the next race, share thoughts, see what other people are talking about.

“It’s taking the race card, that piece of media that’s most central to horse racing, and adding the fans’ comments into it. So it takes a flat unsocial piece of media and makes it social.”

RaceCaller also licences the platform to third parties such as the Sun, Racing UK, and Betdaq. It has recently signed a deal with SkyBet too.

Although it has been self-funded up until now, Mr Barry said the company wasn’t ruling out investment when it took the platform to an international audience.