Quote:
Originally Posted by molson721
Just what I needed, having the ability to change my password or pin, stable alerts, a link to sign up for twinspires and all the other account information taking up 1/3 of my wagering interface. They truly are clueless! 
I am certain the people that thought these changes are good are people who have never wagered on a race! |
About 20 years ago I saw the need for a horseplayer cooperative that would try to help address the needs of horseplayers. The Paceadvantage platform allowed that to happen. I started posting about the idea on Paceadvantage. When I saw that the idea was gaining traction I asked Mike if he could make a "war room" available for us to use. He agreed to. The Paceadvantage war room was where the Horseplayers Association of North America (HANA) was born.
My vision for HANA was that HANA would have some dialogue with racetrack executives about what horseplayers like/don't like, want/don't want, and use/don't use.
Yavapai Downs executives reached out to HANA. Jeff Platt and I met with them and had a very interesting meeting. Yavapai's troubles were too big and had been going on too long for them to be able to overcome them.
It was a long time ago, but as I recall, at the Yavapai meeting Jeff and I recommended focusing on being extremely horseplayer friendly by lowering takeout, starting a wagering platform, and other horseplayer-friendly actions. Yavapai was constrained by legislation about how much they could raise rates. Agreements with Turf Paradise had them over a barrel. The inability to implement a better account wagering system was a big negative. They needed capital to give them another couple years of runway so that they could attempt to change Arizona policies. The AZ politicians tended to side with Indian casinos who were big political donors and passed legislation favorable to the casinos which were unfavorable to Yavapai. Yavapai ran out of time and money and ceased operations not long after our meeting.
I visited KY Downs and had a very nice meeting with some of the staff there. They were doing the rights things and have had good success.
Keeneland invited to their track Jeff and other HANA members. I did not attend the meeting, but it seemed productive. Keeneland kept takeout rates lower, but eventually raised them much to the chagrin of HANA. We'll see how it turns out for them in the longer run.
Other tracks have not been as receptive to HANA's calls for reduced takeout. Hollywood Park comes to mind. The track no longer exists.
Churchill Downs also raised their rates against the wishes of HANA members. I'm not sure if CD has ever listened to a word from horseplayers about what they want. CD bought BRIS and then closed Supertote. Supertote was a great horseplayer resource. I get that it didn't look like the rest of the twinspires property, but that was not a big deal. Any programmer could have changed the look of it, but kept its functionality the same. Instead, TS closed it down and replaced it with the new TS online toteboard which is much more difficult to navigate and use to import into excel or other software for analysis.
Why is it so difficult to consider what horseplayers want instead of ramming a website or policy change down horseplayers' throats without horseplayer input?
Recently, have any racetracks reached out to HANA for input on how their services could be better?
