Arlington Handle Craters

[andymays]

http://drf.com/news/arlington-handle-slumps

Excerpt:

Arlington Park took the worst of things during its 2010 meet that ended Sunday. While ontrack business held relatively steady, out-of-state handle on the Arlington product cratered, and average daily all-sources handle went into free fall, dropping by almost 30 percent.

[thaskalos]

It couldn't have happened to a more deserving place!

[PhantomOnTour]

Are all tracks with AWS seeing a decline in handle? Kee too maybe? Handle has got to be down in Cali.

[parlay]

i have reduced my play dramatically this year.
i used to enjoy AP and my play reflected that,
this year i might have bet 12 races there.

[ArlJim78]

I guess when they cut off all the premium tracks from the ADW's this summer, that not everyone funneled their play over to Arlington, or hoofed it over to an OTB.

plus the product stunk again. I'm not one who believes it has much to do with the surface.

[Stillriledup]

They're not smart enough to realize the fake track is a major factor in handle drop.

[BillW]

Originally Posted by Stillriledup

They're not smart enough to realize the fake track is a major factor in handle drop.

Possibly locking out a significant portion of ADW access to AP for a portion of the meet had a little bit to do with it too.

[Not4Love]

I wonder if they will blame it on the economy? I played this game my entire life. I am now completely out.

[andymays]

According to the brainiacs in California all they have to do is raise the takeout 5% and everything will be OK.

[DeanT]

Another CDI track having a tough time. They should jack their signal fee.

Bill, what was field size this meet? I am assuming down? The supertrainers certainly did not help either. If I see another 5 horse field with a [insert trainer name here off the claim] at 2-5 winning 70% of the time, I think I am going to have to listen to David Israel and switch and become a Dodger, Laker or Giant fan.

[cj]

The Arlington meet was as bad as it gets. Uncompetitive races with ridiculous trainer winning percentages, short prices, short fields, bad surface...you name it, they had it wrong.

[BillW]

Originally Posted by DeanT

Another CDI track having a tough time. They should jack their signal fee.

Bill, what was field size this meet? I am assuming down? The supertrainers certainly did not help either. If I see another 5 horse field with a [insert trainer name here off the claim] at 2-5 winning 70% of the time, I think I am going to have to listen to David Israel and switch and become a Dodger, Laker or Giant fan.

Field size was same as last year (up 0.02 horses/race), but winning favs went from 33% up to 37%. Wire-to-wire wins went from 23% to 28% and avg winning odds fell from 5.23 to 4.79 to 1

[lamboguy]

arlington park should put on a second coat of pollytrack, cut the tracknet rebates from 2% to 1%, lower the purses, and raise the takeout and see how many more people that get for their wonderful product.

[rrbauer]

From the DRF article:

"Arlington, racing 91 days compared with 98 in 2009, handled an average of $2,907,845 according to figures provided by the Illinois Racing Board. That number marked a decline of 27 percent from the all-sources daily average of $4,003,711 in 2009. Out-of-state handle on Arlington races averaged $2,189,310 during this meet compared with $3,228,821 in 2009, a drop of 32 percent. Average daily ontrack handle fell to $431,603 from $466,505 in 2010, a drop of 7 percent. Illinois legalized account wagering earlier this year, and a daily average of $56,685 was bet online on Arlington races during this meet..."

They also carded a record number of turf races in 2010. That must have been the reason for the decline: Pissed-off plastic bettors.

[illinoisbred]

Originally Posted by rrbauer

From the DRF article:

"Arlington, racing 91 days compared with 98 in 2009, handled an average of $2,907,845 according to figures provided by the Illinois Racing Board. That number marked a decline of 27 percent from the all-sources daily average of $4,003,711 in 2009. Out-of-state handle on Arlington races averaged $2,189,310 during this meet compared with $3,228,821 in 2009, a drop of 32 percent. Average daily ontrack handle fell to $431,603 from $466,505 in 2010, a drop of 7 percent. Illinois legalized account wagering earlier this year, and a daily average of $56,685 was bet online on Arlington races during this meet..."

They also carded a record number of turf races in 2010. That must have been the reason for the decline: Pissed-off plastic bettors.

Thats what surprises me about these numbers-way down despite the record number of turf races-clearly a popular move here. I'd estimate I played 25 or fewer polytrack races the entire meet. This resulted mostly due to very short fields,the presence of 2 or more of our super-duper trainers in a race, or just the quirkiness of the surface this year. It was a strange year to say the least.