Swedish horse racing broadcaster adds tracking and analysis with ChyronHego ZXY

Kanal 75, the media arm of Sweden’s trotting and thoroughbred horse racing organisation known as ATG, has purchased 17 ChyronHego systems that will add tracking, analysis and virtual graphics to its broadcasts of Swedish Trotting Association races. Each system combines ChyronHego’s ZXY sports analysis product, its Virtual Placement tool, and its GS2 graphics engine. The project is the first for ChyronHego’s ZXY technology outside of soccer and one of the largest of its kind in the world of horse racing.

ATG, the authorised betting company for trotting and thoroughbred racing in Sweden, exists to guarantee the long-term financial stability of the sport, in part by promoting responsible betting. As a fully owned subsidiary of ATG, Kanal 75 produces racing broadcasts for ATG that are shown on TV4, at ATG betting shops, and on the Internet at www.ATG.se, attracting betters not just from Sweden but from Australia, South Africa, the United States, and about 20 European countries.

“Our job is to cover and distribute the races so as to enhance the viewer experience and support the growth of the sport. The better the quality of the productions, the more of an edge we can give the public,” said Per Tellander, CEO at Kanal 75.

“By installing the ChyronHego systems at the trotting tracks, we’re able to add analysis and graphic details that viewers have come to expect from any modern sports broadcast, with facilities that make our product relevant on all of today’s platforms. Before this, we had no way of tracking the horses or marking their positions during the race. Now we can provide fine points of data that can help people to better follow and experience the sport.”

The systems, set to be installed at 17 tracks by the summer, rely on ChyronHego’s ZXY transponder-based player tracking and analysis technology. ZXY accurately tracks the position of all of the horses and analyses data about each one, such as its path around the track, speed and efficiency when running the route, distance from one horse to another, acceleration, and more. ZXY also applies behavioral algorithms that can predict, for example, when a horse is about to go into a gallop, which is prohibited in harness racing.

From there ChyronHego’s Virtual Placement system and GS2 graphics engine make it possible to translate that data into virtual graphics that are in harmony with the action on the screen, such as live marking horses within the broadcast; tracing a particular horse’s path around the track; or displaying names, times, positions, statistics, and sponsor logos. These on-screen graphics bring ZXY’s analysis to life for viewers, creating a better media product that supplies critical data for more informed, more strategic betting.

At this point the system is intended to benefit the viewers, but all data is being saved so that one-day racing teams might use it to help identify adjustments that could improve their performance (just as many coaches and players do today).