Transcript: Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, CEO, Hong Kong Jockey Club

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HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- It's a typical Wednesday night at Hong Kong's Happy Valley race track.

For the CEO of the Hong Kong Jockey Club, it's just another night on the job. But Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, or E.B. as he is known around his domain, doesn't mind the 24-7 demands of his work.

He loves what he does.

The non-profit Jockey Club, which has a monopoly on all gambling in the territory, is one of the largest racing organizations in the world. It is also Hong Kong's single biggest taxpayer, employer and charitable donor. CNN's Andrew Stevens asked E.B., a former professional footballer from Germany just how he got hooked on the horses.

Engelbrecht-Bresges: When I was a little boy my father took me to the races. I will never forget, I was standing at the rails and if you want to get the speed and dynamic when horses pass you it is probably I contracted the virus of horse racing. I wouldn't say that I am a gambling man. I come from the sports side and I love the breeding side. I think horse racing for me is a fascinating sport.

Stevens: You were a young man playing professional football. You had a choice between potential huge riches, fame as a footballer or putting the suit on, doing your economics degree and going out into the business world. Did it come to that decision? Was it a hard decision to make? Which way to go?

Engelbrecht-Bresges: I think in life one has to be realistic. I think I could be a very good player. You cannot do both really in a way and focus on a career. It is great for a certain period of time to be playing professional soccer but in the end if you look at life and development, I think I felt more enticed for the horse racing side and more enticed to go into a management career.

Stevens: So no regrets? So no thoughts that maybe I could have been the coach of Germany in the World Cup?

Engelbrecht-Bresges: Sometimes you think if I would have chosen a different career path what would have happened but I think that I have the dream job in the racing world.

Stevens: Well you have just taken over running a Hong Kong institution, an icon, when it is facing one of its biggest tests in its 130 year history, talking about competition and talking about online gambling and real gambling. You are in a very daunting position aren't you? Taking on this project?

Engelbrecht-Bresges: I would not call it daunting. It is a challenge definitely but I think that we have an organization which has huge strengths. If you look first of all at our facilities. I think there is no other race course in the world which has these kinds of facilities. And we have significant resources that we will use to upgrade these facilities to match competition and to match a modern lifestyle.

Stevens: But you have also got an industry where turnover has been declining for 10 years. The average age of the race goer is getting older and this pleasure dome 30 kilometers away, Macau, a huge gambling industry. It is going to be the Las Vegas strip. What briefly is your strategy to tackle that?

Engelbrecht-Bresges: Our strategy is in a way we differentiate ourselves significantly from casinos. First of all casinos are not mainly skill games. So we try to package this in this way that first of all the differentiation from only being lucky. Secondly in a way we want to increase our service offering. We want to position racing as a sport so that we can tap more into the leisure segment. We have one major issue which is the next generation and the next generation I think that in Hong Kong we have to try to educate about the sport. It is this missing link and therefore we have to make racing again a fashion, a lifestyle.

Stevens: It has been said that you go to bed late, get up early and your idea of rest is a 10 km run. Is that right?

Engelbrecht-Bresges: 10 km is a normal distance. On weekends it could be more but joke aside I think I live very intensively and fortunately I don't need a lot of sleep. I really enjoy what I am doing and if you are passionate about what you are doing ... if you really feel it is not work but fun that you get paid for it is even better (laughs).

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