Britain’s largest and best-known racecourse group is helping its customers purchase tickets quicker than ever before, thanks to a new partnership with dotcraft.

Visitors to The Jockey Club’s 15 racecourses are taking advantage of significant improvements to the online ticket-buying experience, which has seen a 30 per cent increase in basket conversion rates and average transaction times now 33 seconds quicker year-on-year.

The Jockey Club – which was founded in 1750 and operates iconic horseracing venues including Cheltenham, Aintree, Newmarket and Epsom Downs – set about transforming its customer buying process, tasking development agency dotcraft with creating a faster checkout experience with multiple payment gateways.

As a result a ‘quick pay’ option has now been launched, with almost a third (32 per cent) of ticket buyers taking advantage of the new streamlined payment process.

The technology is compliant with racegoers’ use of loyalty points via Rewards4Racing and additional payment methods, such as digital wallets and Klarna, for increased checkout options.

Jack Lewis, Project Director at dotcraft, said enhancing the customer’s digital journey before they arrive on course is a key metric in driving footfall and racegoer satisfaction.

He explained: “Customer buying habits have shifted dramatically as new technology has made purchasing and accessing event tickets quicker and easier than ever.

“From our initial conversations with The Jockey Club, it was clear a deep dive into how racegoers interact with the group’s websites was necessary.

“From our findings, our team has delivered a customer-friendly user journey which has significantly reduced the number of clicks required to make a purchase and introduced seamless quick pay solutions for users’ devices.

“The immediate findings of The Jockey Club’s change in approach are really pleasing to see and will contribute to a sport-wide effort to engage new audiences, drive footfall and make horse racing accessible to all people.

“We are continually studying customers’ buying habits as part of our brief and will be monitoring activity closely in the coming months with the Cheltenham Festival, Randox Grand National Festival and Betfred Derby Festival on the horizon.”

Established in 2017 in Essex, dotcraft provides a range of digital services including website development, branding, conversion rate optimisation and consultancy. Its client list includes Goodwood Estate, Renault UK and Dacia UK.

Andy Fellingham, Acting Chief Customer and Commercial Officer at The Jockey Club said: “We’re passionate about ensuring that our venues are open and welcoming and providing safe and enjoyable experiences for all and that starts before our racegoers have even arrived on the day.

“Having a modern, streamlined, online checkout process was identified as a key area for improvement to make our fixtures and events appeal more to casual racegoers, where first impressions count for everything.

“We’ve really felt the benefits of partnering with dotcraft, whose team are integral to our operation. What they have delivered has gone beyond our expectations and – in my opinion – represents one of the best online ticket buying experiences in UK sport.

“It’s vital that we continue to grow the sport and attract new audiences. Focusing on fan engagement and putting the customer first in central to that which is why we’re excited about partnering with dotcraft.”

Further information about dotcraft and its digital services is available online via www.dotcraft.agency.