Quote:
Originally Posted by BaffertsWig
I agree with all of this. Also, the Moneymaker effect and the television coverage (ESPN, Poker After Dark, et al) from the early '00s until Black Friday really helped to promote the game among its younger audience. Horseracing rarely gets national coverage, and when it does, it's sometimes relegated to random cable channels (i.e. NBCSN). Not to mention poker is more social in the sense that as a teenager you could play against your buddies on a Friday night over pizza and a few beers. Throw in the online poker thing, where it was easy to fund an account and action was available 24/7/365, well...
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Plus...whatever "national coverage" horseracing gets is more likely to REPEL the viewer, than it is to attract him to the game. Take the Kentucky Derby for instance...which is the year's most watched marquee race. What invariably happens in the Derby telecast is that several experts will explain and handicap the Derby beforehand, and offer their selections to the viewers as a "service". Alas...the nature of the game is such that these "expert selections" will lose the vast majority of the time...while some totally ignored horse eventually wins the year's most visable race. Watching this scenario play out...the "uninformed viewing public" -- whom the industry is trying to attract -- is likely to think that, since this game defies the predicting abilities of even the EXPERTS...then, it probably isn't something that the "uninformed" should be venturing in.
