Quote:
Originally Posted by ultracapper
Comparing the take on sports wagering and horse racing is like comparing a '56 Ford pickup and the space shuttle. When the casinos must build the stadiums, set up the leagues, pay the athletes, rely heavily on the gambler to pay for a big chunk of it, and then administer the entire thing, and still offer 110/100, now we can talk apples to apples.
If the casinos had to run the NFL in the same manner track owners have to run horse racing, there'd be a bank of 500 slot machines at the entrance to Levi Stadium to help make the money to pay Jimmy Garrapollo for the next 5 years.
As for Betfair, if all horse racing action went through them, the horse racing industry would be dead in 2 weeks. The leaches in horse racing don't add a thing to the survival of the game.
I'm not giving the powers that be a pass, just saying that they are in a different situation than just about any other form of gambling.
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In the end it doesn't really matter. Blended takeout on horse racing is 20+ percent. Sports betting is sub 5%. Gamblers don't care about the costs to put on the show, nor should they. If horse racing can't get costs under control to the point that it is a viable gambling game, it will lose. That is the death spiral we are in. Rather than try to compete, racing just keeps raising the price. It will never work long term.
The irony is the game would be nearing death already if not for tracks giving big takeout cuts to the biggest bettors. It has paused the death spiral for a while, but it won't last. You can only fool people for so long.