THE burgeoning influence of technology and social media seems to be seeping into every corner of our lives. Mostly for the better, I must add. Now it’s racing’s turn with cyberspace about to revolutionise Cheltenham Festival preview nights. In a case of “if you can’t come to us, we’ll come to you”, the Official Festival Preview Evening on March 10 is to be streamed live, with the tech-savvy experts at sports betting community OLBG and Cheltenham racecourse truly embracing the shifting sands.
There are dozens of Cheltenham preview evenings but it can be frustrating if there isn’t one close enough to attend. A preview evening in Glasgow is no good to someone living in Exeter. Get the picture? So using technology and social media to open them up to the wider public via live streaming and Twitter is a great idea.
The Official Festival Preview in the Centaur room at Cheltenham racecourse will be streamed live on this link. And those ground-breaking bods at OLBG are also urging people to get involved by tweeting questions to the panel as they watch. OLBG’s PR man Dean Goddard, who is part of the panel, will monitor the Twitter questions and put them to the experts names. Genius.
So who’s on the panel? The Guardian’s racing man Alan Lee will chair it; then there’s Rishi Persad and Alice Plunkett from Channel 4 Racing; Nicky Henderson; Irish jockey Patrick Mullins while Ladbrokes’ David Williams will provide punting pointers.
Dean Goddard said: “I’m thrilled to be involved in this innovative idea from Cheltenham Racecourse and OLBG. There must be thousands of people who can’t make the event and streaming the Official Cheltenham Preview Evening live is the obvious answer.”
Alan Lee said: “It’s great to expand the reach of what is already the biggest and most authentic of the countless preview nights.”
The idiosyncratic traditions of racing can be a part of its overall charm but it has to change and move with the times, especially if it is to attract a younger audience. Last week a Cheltenham Festival preview evening was hosted exclusively on Twitter after being hastily arranged by the BBC journalist Frank Keogh, and very successful it was too. Hopefully people will tune in to the live streaming and chip in with a Twitter question or observation to the audience.
You can tweet your panel question to @OLBG using the #askOLBG hashtag any time this week in the run-up to the event and they will be answered in real time when it starts at 7pm this Sunday.
The live streaming link will also contain a Twitter feed that will include all questions with the #askOLBG hashtag. So don’t forget to tune in at http://cheltenham.olbg.com/preview/stream.php
