Cover image courtesy of The Hong Kong Jockey Club
Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges is at the helm of the Hong Kong Jockey Club, an international racing powerhouse, for nearly two decades. He has navigated Hong Kong Racing through financial crises, political upheaval and a pandemic, and never let anyone think that his visionary sight had lost its compass.
In the conversation that follows, recorded on the eve of the HKJC's international race meeting, the chairman of both the Asian Racing Federation and the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities once again covered ground that will resonate well beyond Hong Kong–from NYRA's CAW restrictions to the racino model, illegal markets, prediction markets and a billion-dollar technology overhaul.
Tackling prediction markets
We know where racing needs to go. This is a good moment to read the winds and currents before setting sail.
Before getting to the familiar debates about late money and casino diversification, Engelbrecht-Bresges raised an issue he considers underestimated across the industry: prediction markets. The HKJC alerted the Hong Kong government four months ago that existing wagering law needed clarification on the matter. His argument is straightforward–when a prediction market creates a tradeable event based on a sports outcome, it is wagering, regardless of how it is packaged.
Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges | Image courtesy of The Hong Kong Jockey Club
“It's a financial market product they claim,” he said. “But when you have events which are clearly based on sports events, it's wagering. It's practically the same as a betting exchange.”
The concern goes beyond semantics. Prediction markets, he argued, are structurally designed to reward insiders. “Who makes money on prediction when it comes to sports? All of the major professionals. And they provide the liquidity.”
With crypto adding another dimension to the problem, he believes the regulatory window to act is narrowing.
Broader issues across illegal betting
However, the most common enemy at our gates remains illegal betting. Engelbrecht-Bresges explained that the HKJC has seen traffic to illegal football gambling websites increase faster than its own–despite significantly expanding its product offering in that segment. Younger customers, specifically the 18-to-25 demographic, are the primary target. “The worse is yet to come,” he said, “because we could have lost our future customer base.”
“The worse is yet to come, because we could have lost our future customer base.” - Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges
What makes the situation particularly striking is the role of major technology platforms. Both Meta and Google have deployed AI-powered tools to screen and suppress illegal gambling websites. Both have excluded Hong Kong and mainland China from that effort. The reason, in Engelbrecht-Bresges's view, is plain and simple. “The real money comes from there.”
He put illegal operators' advertising revenues from that region at approximately three billion US dollars (AU$4.2 billion) annually, a figure he said was reported at the Asian Racing Conference. “We have to do more as operators to get a more global united front to compete.”
Licensed operators who improve their product are not automatically protected when the platforms that could police illegal competition quietly choose not to.
Use of slot machines as a lifeline
On slot machines and casino revenue as a racing lifeline, Engelbrecht-Bresges was, by his standards, blunt. “I was always joking to people in the US that they think they could save racing by making it into casinos. It's the death of your brand.”
When a casino wanted to explore a collaboration with the HKJC a few years ago, his answer was unambiguous. “I said over my dead body. We have no interest in going into an area where you have these addictive forms of gambling.”
“Over my dead body. We have no interest in going into an area where you have these addictive forms of gambling.” - Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges
The argument is partly philosophical and partly pragmatic. Slot machines and horse racing do not share a customer base, and combining them sends a signal–to younger audiences especially–that is difficult to walk back. He described the image of elderly patrons sitting motionless in front of screens cycling every twenty seconds as fundamentally incompatible with the sport's future.
“From a customer segmentation standpoint, you will not attract the right people. It has helped for some years. But then you fall completely off the cliff.”
“From a customer segmentation standpoint, you will not attract the right people. It has helped for some years. But then you fall completely off the cliff.” - Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges
The political vulnerability is just as real. When public budgets tighten–and they are bound to tighten–racing associated with addictive gaming formats becomes an easy target for legislators asking why public subsidy flows toward it. “The question eventually comes: why is this subsidized? Why doesn't this money go to the community?”
He acknowledged that many operators made those decisions under genuine financial pressure. But viewed over a longer perspective, this setup deserves a reckoning. “Many people don't think strategically. They try to do a quick fix, celebrate it. They set themselves up for failure.”
“Many people don't think strategically. They try to do a quick fix, celebrate it. They set themselves up for failure.” - Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges
Changing takeout around last minute bets
Asked about NYRA's policy–implemented in February and restricting computer-assisted wagering to one minute before post across nearly all parimutuel pools–Engelbrecht-Bresges was sympathetic to the intent. The HKJC has grappled with late-money compression for years. But he suggested the blunt instrument approach may leave value on the table.
“A block is a block. When you funnel or create incentives, you can change behavior more effectively.”
“A block is a block. When you funnel or create incentives, you can change behavior more effectively.” - Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges
His preferred model is a differential takeout structure: bets placed in the closing seconds would carry a higher rate, making late money financially costly rather than simply prohibited. “If you have the right technology, you could punish bets that come later with a higher takeout rate. You create different incentive structures to change behavior.”
He was also careful to note that CAWs are not the whole story. “Ninety percent of our normal customers bet later and later. The behavior of betting closer to post time is not only due to professionals.”
A HK$9 billion investment into technology
At the HKJC, the response has combined pipeline throttling with longer-term platform redesign. The Club is in early-stage work on a cash-out mechanism for parimutuel bets–informed by financial market option-pricing models–that would reward earlier, better-informed wagering without abandoning the parimutuel structure. “There are ways to manage it that preserve the customer experience rather than interrupt it.”
In a strategic move to fully embrace the evolution of the racing and betting market, the HKJC has approved a HK$9 billion (AU$1.6 billion) IT investment covering infrastructure, AI integration and a complete redesign of the wagering interface–the goal being to make parimutuel betting intuitive for someone who has never encountered an exotic wager.
“The attention span is eight seconds. If you have to explain what a quinella is, you've already lost them. The customer should be able to type in what they want to do, like a bet builder, and the system channels it to the backend.”
“The attention span is eight seconds. If you have to explain what a quinella is, you've already lost them.” - Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges
Fixed odds, he said, remains off the table for racing–not out of stubbornness, but because the HKJC's entire value proposition rests on providing every piece of available information and letting customers make informed decisions. “If you become a bookmaker, some customers will win permanently–and then do you limit their bets? Do you exclude them? It would be a fundamental philosophical change.”
The ecosystem he is building instead is one where AI accelerates research rather than replacing it, where hyper-personalization serves the engaged bettor, and where the intellectual challenge of handicapping remains the core product. “We don't want to extract as much money in the shortest time. It's a mind game. And I believe that is still–even for a younger segment–genuinely attractive.”
Racing, he concluded, is not in crisis. It is at a moment where choices get made, and where the consequences of those choices will play out over decades. “It's an existential moment where racing has to decide what its future is.”
And the future will definitely be very different from whatever we all take for granted.
