
Hong Kong Jockey Club Adrenaline VIP Room

The Challenge
Create a cutting-edge multi-touch, multi-user, real-time betting system for Hong Kong Jockey Club’s VIP interactive room, Adrenaline.

The Experience
We created a cutting-edge system that used bespoke multi-user, multi-touch interactive tables, allowing VIP members to seamlessly best on the club’s horse races in real time.
The tables allowed several members to seamlessly touch their RFID cards to open their betting sessions and bet desired sums on their favorite horses. The tables allowed users to pull real-time information about races, information about jockeys and horses, and keep track of their betting funds and their wins.
The interactive tables were probably one of the most advanced interactive multi-touch technologies available to consumers at the time.

The Technology
The room consists of several 10 x 4 foot multi-user tables allow up to 8 simultaneous users to follow entire race days and interactively bet on each race getting the most of the available information, updated by the backend platform, and place bets using personal RFID-enabled smart cards offering real-time transactions. This is real time high traffic entertainment e-commerce.
The backend platform provides dynamic content including video, images, stats and race results, updated every 8 seconds. It also allows the remote configuration of each individual table changing interface skin and light scheme based on promotional and seasonal events. Detailed metrics are sent back to the backend system where they are processed to provide accurate and detailed information about each table usage and transactions processed.

The Results
The installation was a raging success, and as a testament, Adrenaline tables are still running up until now at the Hong Kong Jockey Club in Hong Kong and several other locations, including in Singapore, Australia and Japan.

Role & Responsibilities
I was the tech lead in charge of the project’s backend platform and the front-end integration, including the discovery, architecture and implementation of the backend system powering the interactive front-end touch application running on the tables. I managed the backend engineering team, worked closely with the frontend engineering team, and also the client’s betting system, driving the real-time API secure integration.