With Pick-4 takeout reduced-handle goes up 272%

[jelly]

Data from Balmoral Park harness track in Chicago offer some preliminary insights. In 2009, the takeout rate on the racetrack’s Pick-4 wager was 25%. In 2010, the takeout rate was slashed to 15%, for a whopping 40% reduction. In 2010, handle on the Pick-4 increased by 53.7% over 2009. In 2011, handle increased by 75.9% over 2010. In total, handle rocketed by nearly 170% in two years.

The numbers kept getting better in 2012. For example, the January 2012 Pick-4 handle was up an amazing 272% over January 2009.


http://www.horseracingbusiness.com/the-balmoral-park-takeout-rate-experiment-8575.htm

[the little guy]

What were the real dollar amounts?

[DeanT]

Nice little success story they have going there. They are working their butts off.

Real dollars are pretty good Andy. Total handle is up about 35% from 800k to around $1.1M a night, putting it close to what Woodbine does, with a fraction of the purses.

Pick 4's are up from around $8000 in 2009 to I think around $32,000 last month. Decent pool size for the harness player.

Players seem to not mind the purses either. Last Saturday the stakes card at Yonkers with $1.1 million given out in purses had a handle of $1.1 million. At Balmoral the same night they gave out $99,000 in purses and had a handle if $1.3M.

[usedtolovetvg]

What a novel idea, improve your racing product rather than put in 10 more Wheel of Fortune slot machines. What are these guys trying to do, ruin it for everyone else?

[the little guy]

Nice little success story they have going there. They are working their butts off.

Real dollars are pretty good Andy. Total handle is up about 35% from 800k to around $1.1M a night, putting it close to what Woodbine does, with a fraction of the purses.

Pick 4's are up from around $8000 in 2009 to I think around $32,000 last month. Decent pool size for the harness player.

Players seem to not mind the purses either. Last Saturday the stakes card at Yonkers with $1.1 million given out in purses had a handle of $1.1 million. At Balmoral the same night they gave out $99,000 in purses and had a handle if $1.3M.


Thanks. That's great. Good for them. Quite a comparison to Yonkers.