The largest online wagering platform for horse racing in the U.S. is now leveraging artificial intelligence and its biggest test to date will be the 143rd running of the Kentucky Derby on Saturday. TwinSpires.com, which is the Derby’s Official Wagering Partner and wholly owned subsidiary of Churchill Downs, recently started leveraging the Emarsys artificial intelligence-enabled cloud marketing platform.
Last year, $16.6 million was handled by TwinSpires for just the main Derby race alone, an increase of 22 percent from 2015. According to Ian Williams, Vice President of Marketing at TwinSpires, the first challenge will be handling the millions of wagers on race day.
“Our biggest worry is can they stand up to the volume we’re going to put through on Derby Day?” said Williams of Emarsys, adding that the AI platform has withstood significant user testing so far in preparation for this weekend.
“Fingers crossed, it all goes well on the day.”
As Williams said, TwinSpires wanted to streamline its communication efforts through one platform. Prior to AI, TwinSpires manually segmented a lot of its customers, pulling data and creating its own lists.
With the new AI-equipped back end system, the betting platform is hoping to gather better data around race day, map user preferences and also predict behaviors, with the end goal of creating more targeted and personalized marketing campaigns across web, mobile, email and SMS.
“We were effectively running our own CRM platform. It wasn’t scalable,” Williams said, adding that now TwinSpires can generate thousands of CRM groups instead of just a couple.
Through AI-supported email and push notifications, TwinSpires can maintain relationships with its loyal customers, deliver content and provide unique offers throughout horse racing season, not just during the Kentucky Derby.
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Williams said that with Emarsys, TwinSpires can effectively set a starting point for a behavior based on consumer data such as when a person visits the website, engages with a page or opens the mobile app. Now, TwinSpires is running its own predictive models, according to Williams, and is segmenting users from those analyses. For example, if a regular TwinSpires bettor hasn’t utilized the platform in a while but always plays around the Kentucky Derby, TwinSpires can put those specific individuals into a certain automation flow, effectively saying, “If this segment of players hasn’t played, send them an email about the Derby.”
As Williams explained, at that point in the communications process, it’s more about content creation as the flows are automatically sending to TwinSpires’ users.
“We’re able to get really targeted in terms of the message we’re pushing out. Prior to that, we were sending almost everyone every message,” Williams said, adding that with the AI solution “TwinSpires can get tighter and closer to their target.”
Sean Brady, the President of Americas at Emarsys, echoed Williams’ sentiments, stating that “content personalization and timing” of messages are integral components of the AI-based marketing automation for TwinSpires for communicating with Derby fans.
“When customers are willing to be fully immersed in a brand, it creates a connection like no other,” Brady said in a statement. “Churchill Downs has a distinct position in the recreational market, beloved by guests and fans alike. Our work with their wagering service, TwinSpires.com seeks to realize the full potential of these relationships, taking advantage of peak seasons and events to set the stage for tailored, omni-channel campaigns that foster long-term growth and happier customers.”