Trakus made its broadcast television debut with its predecessor hockey application, developed for the NHL and deployed on ABC, ESPN, and CBC at the 2001 NHL All Star Game & Super Skills Competition. The company continued providing similar coverage for a year of Boston Bruins home games working with local broadcasters, the Boston Garden, and BostonBruins.com, among others.

During the early years, Trakus also covered two seasons of NASCAR racing, PGA Tour & Senior Tour professional golf tournaments, and completed a series of technical evaluation trials with the NFL and New England Patriots. Each of these applications was delivered with minor adaptations of its patented tracking system and Digital Sports Information (DSI) platform.

Shortly after introduction in these sports, the implosion of the dot-com market made it difficult to finance the introduction into the NHL, NFL, and others, and in 2002 the Company decided to shift focus to horse racing. Trakus recognized that the horse racing model – a unique mix of gaming and entertainment – allowed its tracking technology to materially impact the revenue line while remarkably enhancing racing’s entertainment appeal across all consumer segments and demographics.

The economic underpinnings of the Thoroughbred racing industry in North America are driven by a multi-billion pari-mutuel wagering handle ($100+ billion worldwide) with established demand for performance data. Trakus recognized that commingling the entertainment aspect of its informationrich video graphics with advanced data applications would enable end-users to make better-informed gaming decisions while simultaneously enabling fan-friendly end-user feature sets ideal for broadband and mobile delivery with racetracks and ADWs.