Drone racing - the world's next big sport

Four quadcopters shriek around the Miami Dolphins stadium at 110kph. The first two, trailing purple and red lights, zip through a glowing LED gate. But the third, lit yellow, mistimes it. The craft collides with the gate strut and smashes into pieces. The commentators go wild; the pilot, FPVProvo, pulls off his virtual-reality headset in disgust.

Welcome to the Drone Racing League (DRL), the New York startup which wants to turn quadcopter racing into the next big spectator sport. 

DRL CEO Nick Horbaczewski, 35, discovered UAV racing after being introduced by his hobbyist friend Ryan Gury. "He took me out to a field in Long Island where a bunch of guys had got together," he says. Horbaczewski, a former chief revenue officer at Tough Mudder, immediately saw the potential.

"This is [like] the early days of motor racing, when the only people racing cars were the people building them," says Horbaczewski. "If you look at the sales of components, it's a big movement - thousands of people." DRL's races aren't like your usual maker meet-up: its Racer2 drones, used by all pilots, are custom-built to exacting race specifications.
Gury, now chief product officer, built a proprietary radio system (video disconnecting used to be a problem) and LED rigs, which make the drones easier to follow and lend a Tron-like aesthetic.
Each drone contains two cameras: one standard definition, which streams live video to the pilots, and one high-definition, used to splice together videos for sharing online. Camera drones and ground cameras film every angle. "We've worked on that a lot," says Horbaczewski. "It's hard to think of another sport that is as three-dimensional, as fast, and in as small a space."
DRL has six races scheduled across the US in 2016. Currently invite-only, it plans to introduce live audiences "and ultimately live broadcast experiences", Horbaczewski says.
The company has already raised $8 million (£5.6m) in funding from investors including the owner of the Miami Dolphins and Muse frontman Matt Bellamy (enthusiast alert: Muse's 2015 album was titled Drones).
The next step: scaling up and recruiting more pilots. DRL has released an online simulator that lets amateurs try a course. "We're seeing people posting incredible scores," Horbaczewski says. "Put a drone in their hand and give them a few weeks, they might become a superstar."