I have repeatedly stated this game is way overpriced for the masses. That being said if the masses want to bet sports, isn't the door already open? Offshore sports betting has been here for over 20 years. Bookies have always have been here. I highly doubt anyone who wants to bet games is not betting games. So the way I look at it is that if sports betting were to become legal, it introduces gambling to a large chunk of society that has mostly abstained from it. Sure they may play in a weekly card game or go to Vegas a couple times a year......but for the most part they are living their life without gambling.
So in my mind the problem is not that sports betting could be here to stay and that horseplayers are going to leave the game in droves to suddenly bet sports. To me the problem is that when the horse player bets sports they realize that there $500 betting sports provides a lot more entertainment. They bet 10 games a week for $55/$50 (whether they will be able to get a bet down at 11/10 remains to be seen) and on a typical week they go 5-5 an lose a whopping $25. In contrast if they are betting $500 a week on racing, they are losing 100 to $150 a week(Multiply that by 52 weeks and you have something to talk about). So if sports betting is offerred at 11/10 then it will not take very long for the masses to figure out that there is a better gamble out there. On the other hand if the greed of the leagues causes sports betting to be offerred at 12/10 or even 13/10 which is very possible (I haven't been following it but I know these discussions are out there ) then the sports bettor is losing $50 or $75 a week and it is a little less obvious that sports betting is the better gamble.
Whatever the case racing has to figure out if they want to become a player in the gambling industy (by eliminating rebates and bringing takeout to 8/10/12 %). If they do sports betting will transform a lot more of the population into gambling which could in turn will transform more people into horse racing. Initially a good % of the public isn't going to know they are getting gouged at racetracks, so sports betting may actually help racing for a time, but unless racing wants to compete in the gambling market by offerring a competitive betting marketplace, I think we will have much of what we have today until sports betting eventually starts siphoning off players at a pretty fast rate.............At this point it can get pretty ugly.
Any chance racing sees the light? Sadly I think not. If they don't they can look back to this moment in time and realize this was the point in time they really needed to do something right and they failed to act and it cost them everything. Of course they can always hope that sports betting is not leagalized and everything will be just peachy keen.
