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If you are a gamer, you’ve got probably heard at least one lecture about the way it’s a waste of time. But what if those hours led you to a lucrative and lasting profession path?
Enter A racing wonderthe world’s first E2Real sports league, which turns virtual track championships into a gateway to competition with the best professional drivers. Gamers of all ages are jumping from their couches into their cockpits, proving that video games will be greater than just mindless entertainment. But to completely bridge the gap between virtual and real-world racing, Racing Prodigy must address one of the sport’s most enduring challenges. We talked to the company’s founders to learn about their strategy.
Braking costs, building the future
“The biggest barrier to participating in motorsports is cost,” says the CEO and co-founder David Cook. The typical three-day racing school where most drivers begin their careers can cost as much as $7,000, putting the sport out of reach for most. Moreover, in keeping with Cook, three days behind the wheel is not enough to evaluate talent. His co-founder Matt Fassnacht adds that the pay-to-play system limits access and dilutes the talent pool.
“Drivers have to bribe themselves,” says Fassnacht. “Imagine if I told you you can play in the Super Bowl for $5, $10, or $20 million, depending on your position. That’s how motorsport works.” He and Cook are determined to vary that with Racing Prodigy.
“We want to create a model that provides talented, hard-working drivers with a sustainable career path,” says Cook. “I don’t want this to be about money,” Fassnacht adds. “I want the best people there.”
Cook describes the current business model as “broken,” explaining that the costs often exceed the value to participants. “If you don’t have a specific name, how are you going to get a six- or seven-figure amount to enter a series that isn’t Formula 1?” The cook says. He believes the solution is a more modern approach to grassroots talent acquisition – using racing simulation games as a scouting tool. “The best way to do this is through racing games,” he says.
Fassnacht and Cook are not only empty suits; each have been behind the wheel and experienced the pitfalls of the sport first-hand. Cook ran a program at Mazda in 2014 that trained professional drivers using racing simulators. “There are two people in the world who have taken players from simulation or racing games and put them in race cars,” Fassnacht says. – Dave is one of them. Cook believes the Racing Prodigy is five times superior to that old design.
Fassnacht highlights real-world success stories like William Byron, the 2024 Daytona 500 winner who started off in racing simulators, as proof of Racing Prodigy’s potential. “Racing Prodigy leverages games such as Street Kart Racing for iOS devices, Gran Turismo and iRacing,” says Cook. The league’s best driver began with a mobile SIM card, which was latest in the industry.
To watch: NASCAR driver William Byron learned learn how to race from video games
“We have proven that more prodigies play racing games and watch racing on TV than actually race on the track,” Cook says. “It’s just a numbers game.”
Filling the Fandom
Building a dedicated fan base is crucial to the long-term success of Racing Prodigy. Cook believes the best approach to achieve this is to showcase drivers’ personal stories. They are creating a documentary like Netflix Drive to survivewhich brought attention to Formula 1. They have partnered with Invent TV to present documentaries to platforms corresponding to Netflix and Hulu, capturing content from events corresponding to Prodigy Week and Silverstone F1 weekend.
“There are two main things about our program,” says Cook. “Firstly, we focus on drivers from humble beginnings. Secondly, since this is not a paid league, not everyone will make it – some will have to go home.” He compares it to American Idolwhere the variety of participants decreases with each round, but many drivers advance to the real racing championship, creating the world’s first e2Real motorsport league.
In the first series, over 100,000 players competed in e-sports. Thirty-two Prodigy passes scored – like American Idol golden tickets and advanced to Prodigy Week, during which they tested their driving, communication, data understanding and physical fitness. Ultimately, 24 riders signed paid racing contracts and were chosen by six teams, while six more were saved because of fan votes. Fans should be ready for the qualifiers as Racing Prodigy plans to sack nine more drivers before the end of the season.
“As fans fall in love with these drivers, some will go home, which will be difficult for both drivers and fans,” Cook says. “This is crucial in building an audience.”
The path to success
Fortunately, Racing Prodigy has a built-in audience. “Over a billion gamers say racing is their favorite video game genre,” says Fassnacht. While the interest so far is encouraging, Fassnacht cautions that this audience is difficult to succeed in without authenticity. “They’ll just be like, ‘No, you didn’t do what you said you would.’ That’s why we spent so much time proving that it could work.” Racing Prodigy plans to attract players’ attention by introducing famous faces from the virtual world to real racing events.
Another key differentiator is Racing Prodigy’s ownership structure. Unlike most sports leagues, the company is vertically integrated. “We own everything,” says Fassnacht – the rules, the teams, the cars and the governing bodies. In traditional racing, teams control engineering, testing and transportation. Racing Prodigy, nevertheless, houses all the vehicles under one roof and manages them with one set of crew and engineers. This reduces operating costs by breaking the financial barrier to entry. “The running costs of our core series, the P3 Championship, are less than half the running costs of the Mazda MX-5 Cup,” says Cook.
This efficient model caught the attention of investors, including: Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, who sponsors his own team, TC Racing. “What stands out to me most about Racing Prodigy is how it provides motorsport opportunities for people who don’t have the financial means,” says Courtois. “Creating more opportunities and attracting young talent creates synergies that I cannot pass up.”
With an progressive model and a people-first culture, Racing Prodigy transforms what was once just a hobby into a legitimate path to professional success – proving that pixels can indeed pave the approach to glory.