Voxbet launches first voice-activated betting app in time for Cheltenham

BetVictor

Betting software maker Voxbet and horse racing media giant At The Races have announced the launch of a new, industry-first, voice-activated betting assistant called BetCaller. 

The assistant is available via the At The Races app and will automatically detect the horse’s name and bet details before providing a pre-filled betting slip for the caller. 

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The feature is available immediately and has been launched in time for the upcoming Cheltenham Festival, which runs from Tuesday 11 March to Friday 15 March, and is one of the biggest events in the horse racing calendar. 

Voxbet started in 2006 when, under the name Onionbet, and back in the day it accepted SMS bets on the World Cup in Germany. 

After making the platform compatible with voice-to-text engines, Onionbet rebranded as Voxbet in 2021 and went on to expand its innovative betting service so that it would accept voice-activated betting. 

The new service has launched on the At The Races app and is called BetCaller. Users will be able to place bets using voice recognition. The app will listen and recognise the name of any horses running that day, as well as the caller’s stake and bet type. 

BetCaller will then prefill a betting slip to incorporate details of the bet and the bettor and then ask the user to confirm the details. 

The technology aims to reduce the number of clicks punters have to make to place bets. Voxbet and At The Races hope that minimising friction points in the process will help increase the number of bets placed. 

The At The Races app is a free-to-use app, available on Android and Apple devices. It includes detailed racecards and odds from several respected bookmakers including BetVictor. 

Head of sponsorship at the betting company said of the launch: “We are delighted to partner with At The Races to deliver a modern way to bet for those using BetCaller on the ATR app.” 

The app will work for race meetings across the UK, Ireland, North America, South America, Hong Kong, France, South Africa and Australia. It will see its first action during the Cheltenham Festival. 

The highlight of the Cheltenham Festival is Gold Cup Day, held on the Friday, and the main event, The Gold Cup, is the most valuable non-handicap chase event in the country. 

This year’s event once again has a total prize pot of £625,000. Such is the draw of the event that more than £500m is typically bet across the four days of Cheltenham. 

Founder and managing director of Voxbet, Jonathan Power, said, ahead of the launch: “Put succinctly, the new BetCaller functionality enables users to place bets quickly and easily using voice recognition.” 

Power went on to say: “Once placing a bet can be as easy as speaking it, betting by voice will become ubiquitous. And BetCaller is another significant step down that road.”