Ellis Park goes non-exclusive from Tracknet

[NoCal Boy]

>>>If there are no other setbacks, Geary has taken one significant step forward toward increasing the cash flow at Ellis Park. He's gotten out of an agreement that gave one company an exclusive right to the Ellis Park satellite feed for off-track betting. With greater exposure to more of those parlors, more wagers should be placed on the races.<<<


http://www.courierpress.com/news/2008/apr/28/racing-against-all-odds/

>>>One of the stipulations of his purchase of the track from Churchill Downs was that the Ellis Park simulcast feed for Advance Wagering Deposits would be exclusively carried by TrackNet. That prevented the Ellis Park signal from also going out on the TVG feed, which Geary says cost him a 10 percent revenue reduction last year. He has now reached an agreement to get Ellis Park races back on a broader satellite feed and is back in negotiations with TVG.

Maline estimates that Ellis Park lost access to a revenue stream that could have amounted to more than a quarter-million dollars in 2007 by not having the TVG feed. <<<

http://www.courierpress.com/news/2008/apr/27/track-facing-long-odds/

[trying2win]

Interesting article. Ron Geary gained some popularity among bettors last year with the low takeout on the PICK 4. Now he's disappointed that the Kentucky state government won't approve a casino for his track. Too bad. Get over it Ron! Quit your whining. If life hands you a lemon, make a lemonade. Try lowering the track takeouts across the board at ELLIS PARK to let's say 12 % for straight betting, and no higher that 15 % for the gimmicks. That kind of standard should see your parimutuel handle skyrocket...higher parimutuel prices for bettors, more money for purses.

Ron, try to wean yourself off the slot machine bandwagon. Good for the Kentucky state government for not approving those #%&@$ slot machines for your racetrack. The false advertising one sees that slot machines 'increases prosperity' for a lot of people....is misleading in my opinion. The only prosperity in the long run, is for the casino owners and the state or provincial governments.

I've got a couple of relatives hooked on those #%&@$ slot machines, and they usually run out of money by the middle of the month. No matter how hard I try to explain to them that YOU CAN'T BEAT SLOT MACHINES IN THE LONG RUN, because of the house edge, they won't listen. They figure the next 'BIG JACKPOT IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER'... yeah right. And I have to keep telling them NO! I WON'T LEND THEM MONEY TO PLAY THOSE
#%&@$ slot machines as well.

Legalizing slot machines outside of Nevada and New Jersey was one of the worst things that could ever have happened to many communities in the USA and CANADA. Caused too many social problems in my opinion. Yes...I'm biased against casino games and all the false advertising that goes with all the photos of the alleged big winners at the slot machine games on their walls. What they don't show you is all the photos of the losers and the despair that go with huge gambling losses of some addicted slot machine players.

[InsideThePylons-MW]

Try lowering the track takeouts across the board at ELLIS PARK to let's say 12 % for straight betting, and no higher that 15 % for the gimmicks. That kind of standard should see your parimutuel handle skyrocket...higher parimutuel prices for bettors, more money for purses.

t2w,

That's the problem.......when he lowers his takeout, nobody (all racetracks and most ADW's) will accept bets (take his signal) on his races. Therefore all handle would have to be on-track which would be no good for him.

[Marlin]

t2w,

That's the problem.......when he lowers his takeout, nobody (all racetracks and most ADW's) will accept bets (take his signal) on his races. Therefore all handle would have to be on-track which would be no good for him.Great point. Lowering takeout is a touchy issue. You can't cut the governments take. You can't cut the horsemans take. You can't sell your signal at a premium unless you are Keeneland. (which is why most tracks hate Kee and takeout fanatics support them)The only thing you can cut is the tracks %, and at 12% Ellis must be making peanuts. No way they can collect enough peanuts to feed the elephant.

[InsideThePylons-MW]

Any major takeout reduction has to be industry wide or at a major track (with all other tracks/adw's agreeing to terms) for it to possibly work.

[startngate]

Any major takeout reduction has to be industry wide or at a major track (with all other tracks/adw's agreeing to terms) for it to possibly work.
IMO, it has to be industry wide. Doing it at one (or a few) tracks won't work because it is of no benefit to the tracks that lowered takeout if the customer can take that money and bet on other tracks with higher takeout.

Put into a simple retail scenario, if Home Depot decides to take 25% off a grill (reduced takeout), and you go to buy one, they are hoping you will spend more money in their store (churn) when you buy it. If you take that savings and go to Lowes to buy the grill cover, cooking utensils and a propane tank, then Home Depot doesn't get the additional benefit (increased handle) from putting the grill on sale. Yes, they get the original (smaller) profit, which they might not have seen without the sale, but they will have to sell a lot more grilles to make up the revenue difference.

Great point. Lowering takeout is a touchy issue. You can't cut the governments take. You can't cut the horsemans take.
Actually, this isn't entirely true. The State, Horsemen, and Track would hope to raise their overall revenue (take) by having the takeout reduction create an increase in handle. All the experts on takeout reduction say it will. However, doing it unilaterally hasn't made handle go up enough to raise the overall revenue. I believe Turfway and Laurel have both tried it and ended up raising their takeout back up to where it was previously because the revenue decreased.

And yes, increasing host fee rates while lowering takeout would put a huge squeeze on the industry ... especially at the smaller tracks who can't get away with raising the host fee.

[Cangamble]

Laurel's signal didn't make it to HPI when they reduced takeouts. I believe another major ADW didn't take the signal as well.
11 days is not enough to measure takeout impact.
And I'm sure that the extra money made on Laurel by customers was sent through the windows at other tracks.

I don't recall the Turfway experiment.

[startngate]

Turfway tried lowering their takeout to the same level Churchill and Keeneland were using. It was a few year's ago ... sorry but I don't remember exactly when.