A Good Read

[Cratos]

In searching the Internet I found the “Rail Blog” and in it was a great read written by Bennett Liebman, whom I believe is a member of the Albany Law School faculty.

One of the good excerpts from Liebman’s blog which he titled “The Knowledge Base of Racing” is as follows:

“As much as we might enjoy the art and/or skill of handicapping, the learning curve for learning how to play the horses is simply too steep. (Again, there‘s no learning curve with a slot machine.) We have never developed a simple way for people to bet the horses with a modicum of skill. We have never developed a racing program which works to attract newcomers to the sport. We have made the act of placing a knowledgeable bet too hard”

If this reference has been made elsewhere on this forum I apologize for the redundancy and if not the following link can be used to find it.

http://therail.blogs.nytimes.com/author/bennett-liebman/

[Greyfox]

“As much as we might enjoy the art and/or skill of handicapping, the learning curve for learning how to play the horses is simply too steep. (Again, there‘s no learning curve with a slot machine.) We have never developed a simple way for people to bet the horses with a modicum of skill. http://therail.blogs.nytimes.com/author/bennett-liebman/


The learning curve may be long, but steep? Too steep?
I don't think so. Anyone who is willing to read a few books and observe the races can do quite okay here. It is a game that we have to continue to learning. (Sometimes we forget previous learnings, and that can come back to haunt us. A winner runs by and in the rear view mirror it was an easy pick if we'd have been following some very simple principles of selection.)

Unfortunately, most of the horse players that I know have never read a book and never will. Or perhaps they read a book many years ago without broadening their knowledge base further.
A lot of players don't even know what the Beyers are in bold print in the Daily Racing form. A lot of players don't even have a racing form at the tracks I go to.
If it were too easy to win at the horses, the tracks and us would ultimately go broke. At the races when everyone wins, noone wins.
Furthermore, what would be the challenge?
Players with more "savvy" should be rewarded.
Clucks can go play the slots and ultimately lose there.
Obviously there is no learning curve for slot machines.
Anyone with a low IQ can play them. They are based on intermittent reinforcement principles and in the long run will get players money.
Those that continue to play slots are even bigger clucks.

[Linny]

Very few people know more about racing than Bennett Liebman. He has a very good point.
In addition to having a very confusing betting menu (for the novice) the game on the whole is hard for the newbie to get. I mean all the divisions (turf, 2yo's, 3yo's, fillies etc) and all the levels (stakes, claiming, allowance, maiden) is tough to figure out. The average newcomer sees "horses" and has no point of reference as to why they all just don't race each other.

[Cratos]

The learning curve may be long, but steep? Too steep?
I don't think so. Anyone who is willing to read a few books and observe the races can do quite okay here. It is a game that we have to continue to learning. (Sometimes we forget previous learnings, and that can come back to haunt us. A winner runs by and in the rear view mirror it was an easy pick if we'd have been following some very simple principles of selection.)

Unfortunately, most of the horse players that I know have never read a book and never will. Or perhaps they read a book many years ago without broadening their knowledge base further.
A lot of players don't even know what the Beyers are in bold print in the Daily Racing form. A lot of players don't even have a racing form at the tracks I go to.
If it were too easy to win at the horses, the tracks and us would ultimately go broke. At the races when everyone wins, noone wins.
Furthermore, what would be the challenge?
Players with more "savvy" should be rewarded.
Clucks can go play the slots and ultimately lose there.
Obviously there is no learning curve for slot machines.
Anyone with a low IQ can play them. They are based on intermittent reinforcement principles and in the long run will get players money.
Those that continue to play slots are even bigger clucks.


Greyfox,

There has to be a reason that this sport is losing its patrons to other gambling enities and I believe Bennett Liebman is onto something. I don’t think he is talking about the recreational bettor who might go the racetrack a couple time a year.

If you are a gambler and want to lay a couple of hundred or a couple of thousand dollars per wager you better have very deep pockets or you better have a good understanding of this game.

And it is these sort of bettors that racing needs to revive itself; bettors who are committed to the sport and have sufficient funds to wager.

[Greyfox]

Greyfox,

There has to be a reason that this sport is losing its patrons to other gambling enities and I believe Bennett Liebman is onto something. I don’t think he is talking about the recreational bettor who might go the racetrack a couple time a year.

If you are a gambler and want to lay a couple of hundred or a couple of thousand dollars per wager you better have very deep pockets or you better have a good understanding of this game.

And it is these sort of bettors that racing needs to revive itself; bettors who are committed to the sport and have sufficient funds to wager.

I'm not talking about recreational bettors who come to the track a couple of times a year. I'm talking about daily rail birds who haven't bothered to learn anything new in eons or don't even have a program.
The fact is Money = Energy.
If there are other gambling games out there where you can make easy money, without a learning curve tell us what they are. You can't because they don't exist.
If the sport is losing gamblers to games such as poker, marketing has something to do with it. Also you can play thousands of free games on the net while you sharpen your skills. However, it still takes energy.
Many people just want to win. They don't want to do the homework.
What's more, some people learn faster than others. That's just a fact of life.
In the meanwhile, to win at this game consistently takes study and energy.

[Cratos]

I'm not talking about recreational bettors who come to the track a couple of times a year. I'm talking about daily rail birds who haven't bothered to learn anything new in eons or don't even have a program.
The fact is Money = Energy.
If there are other gambling games out there where you can make easy money, without a learning curve tell us what they are. You can't because they don't exist.
If the sport is losing gamblers to games such as poker, marketing has something to do with it. Also you can play thousands of free games on the net while you sharpen your skills. However, it still takes energy.
Many people just want to win. They don't want to do the homework.
What's more, some people learn faster than others. That's just a fact of life.
In the meanwhile, to win at this game consistently takes study and energy.


Let’s just speak of the basis learning and I will ask you: Do think the DRF is easy to learn how to read?

Yes, I agree that once you learn and is both a skillful gambler and a good handicapper you can exploit this game somewhat, but that talent in my opinion doesn’t come easy or quickly.

I only bet on thoroughbreds and I only bet to win, but to stay ahead of the curve I put in a lot of time and effort and I have been fortunate to have the funds to wager the amounts I want too.

But again Leibman are not speaking of people like you and he me. He is addressing what the industry needs to do to attract new bettors.
Also I don’t disagree that marketing is part of it, but there must be changes made such that the sport can be marketed.

[Greyfox]

Let’s just speak of the basis learning and I will ask you: Do think the DRF is easy to learn how to read?

Yes. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to learn how to read it.
Learning to read the stock market isn't easy. Learning "reads" on poker players isn't either.

But again Leibman are not speaking of people like you and he me. He is addressing what the industry needs to do to attract new bettors.
Also I don’t disagree that marketing is part of it, but there must be changes made such that the sport can be marketed.

Yes. We agree on that.
The younger generation has been raised in a "fast food" -electronic game world. Maybe they expect to learn horse racing quicker than what is reasonable. But the same would be true for poker.
Maybe if we put Christmas tree and strobe lights on the horses they'd find them more exciting.
I don't have the answers as to why Racing is going down. Obviously old men are dying and young 'uns aren't replacing them.
Marketing of the races in most cities is very poor. Racing seldom gets on the sports pages more than a few times a year. If it does you have to hunt for it.