Sports Betting- head-to-head wager on picks by Andy Serling and Jonathon Kinchen."

[westernmassbob]

Originally Posted by jay68802

I think it sounds like a lot of fun.

I agree it would be fun. Imagine being able to bet the over/under on number of horse scratches at Saratoga each year.

[$w1fT]

Originally Posted by PaceAdvantage

What is racing focused on, incidentally?

Looking to capture part of the sports betting fanbase isn't a bad thing. And I doubt you could honestly say they are FOCUSED on the sports betting thing.

It's a side-hustle at best.

So what are they FOCUSED on?

It should be focused on fixing such things like what happened at Tampa R8 yesterday.

[Bustin Stones]

Originally Posted by Track Phantom

If this is an attempt to attract sports bettors, not a chance in high hell. The assumption is that sports bettors would transition to bet on horse racing since they have a -110 50/50 option. This is pure and utter idiocy. Sports bettors don't bet on horse racing mainly because of a myriad of other factors (too numerous to even mention here).

Horse racing has one unique betting situation that you can't really get with sports betting. You can win a lot of money with a small investment (life changing stuff) without having to get impossibly lucky. There should be LESS betting opportunities as it waters down the pools.

I don't blame anyone for thinking outside of the box but when is someone going make a serious impact instead of these tired half-hearted ideas that will do little more than eat into more attractive pools? Might as well bring back horse racing roulette. Gotta run, the next Quinella is coming up.

It isn't impossible to see proposition betting even the small bet returning big. Just offer parlays. You bet a 6 proposition parlay and they give you 50-1.

[Andy Asaro]

Originally Posted by classhandicapper

These things can get very tricky to measure.

It might take awhile for the 14% to have any noticeable impact. So they'd have to be patient. It may also just shift money from one pool to another or even one track to another track in a race to the bottom. We've seen that kind of thing with state taxes where tax breaks don't necessarily attract new money. They just shift the same money from one state to another.

The first one to do it will be rewarded. And a marketing campaign has to help spread the word. No doubt in my mind it will work

[SG4]

Originally Posted by $w1fT

It should be focused on fixing such things like what happened at Tampa R8 yesterday.

What exactly happened that should've been the focus of the racing industry?

[ranchwest]

Originally Posted by PaceAdvantage

What is racing focused on, incidentally?

Looking to capture part of the sports betting fanbase isn't a bad thing. And I doubt you could honestly say they are FOCUSED on the sports betting thing.

It's a side-hustle at best.

So what are they FOCUSED on?

Seems Lone Star is focused on food and beverage sales. They find it very important to feature bands that play beer drinking music.

[Tom]

I can think of a few prop bets that would go over big......

[v j stauffer]

1

Originally Posted by $w1fT

Because one of racing's biggest problems is that it is focused on the wrong things.

The horse bettor wants takeout lowered. If he wants to lay -110 on a 50/50 proposition he will bet the NFL.

Racing thinks that bets like those will attract the casual fan. They don't know who TLG or JK are.

It's a nice thought, sure. But if you ask every horseplayer if they'd rather 10% takeout on WPS bets or to be able to bet the o/u on Luis Saez wins on the day, they will take the takeout every time.

You may or may not be right about casual fans not knowing who TLG and JK are.

However, if we could get people to starting paying attention to a competition between them it could be a teaching tool.

TLG is excellent at explaining the methodology as to how he arrives at his opinion. This has great value whether the horse wins or not.

The way to make this sport grow is to try to cultivate horseplayers into forming their own opinion.

That's the only way they'll go from betting $2 to $20 to $200.

Sometimes on my daily show with Nancy Holthus or on my Bi-Weekly THOROGRAPH seminar I'll choose a horse or race that affords me the best chance to teach.

Maybe a pick with an unorthodox angle or one I can us the telestrator on.

Whatever gets casual fans to become more engaged is win/win IMO