Making horse racing more popular

[Jeff P]

Since none of your suggestions involve helping horseman where is your stock going to come from. It sounds like a good recipie for a really nice plant with Blue Ribbon Down stock to me.

I understand that the players would be very happy. HOwever, who else?

Lord knows the salary structrure for the track employees would surely suck. I am sure the legislature would gladly allow you to lower the take out as long as their % stays the same.

Yes!!! My game plan involves putting the customer first.

I think the industry's status quo has things 180 degrees ass backwards... putting the customer last and everybody else first. Before anything else changes THAT has to change first.

Look at the most successful companies out there. If there's one thing that makes them successful it's that they understand the needs and wants of their customers. Then they make it their mission to satisfy those needs and wants. True success for any company in any industry doesn't happen any other way.

The horsemen are clearly part of the industry. But they are NOT the customer.

Guarantee you the first track that gets this gets an immediate competitive advantage over all the others - as soon as they start putting the customer first.

The result - provided the game is not already mortally wounded - can only be an increase in public awareness, creation of new fans, and something unheard of: true handle growth.

What? You think creating public awareness, new racing fans, and a boom in handle is somehow bad for the horsemen?


-jp

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[Semipro]

A few words on the stump. First the only way to grow the sport is to grow the the fan base.The key to that is providing accessible information (FREE PP"S) to semi-intelligent people who become attracted to the game notice I didn't say sport because of the mental challenges it presents. No one enjoys chess unless they at least know the basic moves the more you play the better you get as with all games. Horse racing combines the thrill of watching superb racing with tradition and wagering and if promoted in that context would grow.

In UK track attendance is thriving but it is a twice a year, day out social thing and very much more expensive than USA Many do not bet at all and some just $10 on the favourite, whatever that is. It is all too complicated and embarrassing, unless you have someone to explain all the jargon.

All UK betting is completely tax free.
However, racing bets have plummeted from about 90% of the total to 40%.
Why? - competition - sports, slots, lotteries, virtual racing video games, bet from tv - no skill, no knowledge, quick and easy - a bit of fun. Racing - hours of study and a daily grind to keep up - hard work for the next generation, forget it.

[46zilzal]

Originally Posted by robert99

no skill, no knowledge, quick and easy - a bit of fun. Racing - hours of study and a daily grind to keep up - hard work for the next generation, forget it.

I try and try to get the younger crowd out and go over the basics with them ad nauseum: "That's too tough for me!"

I show them my records as to what types win on what surfaces and I hear things like "You're obsessed!" "Wow old man, how can you waste your time that way?"

Pointing out to them that is what it takes falls in deaf ears.

[Cangamble]

Robert99, correct me if I'm wrong, that even though the slice of the pie is decreasing, the gross numbers have been increasing.
Do you include Betfair in your numbers btw?

[ceejay]

Originally Posted by Jeff P

My game plan involves putting the customer first.
.

What a concept. You don't actually expect it to happen, do you?

[Cangamble]

Originally Posted by ceejay

What a concept. You don't actually expect it to happen, do you?

Not unless they wake up. They think they are a charity. From subsidies they get from slots to ripping off customers with ludicrously high takeouts.
They are just legitimate beggars.

[Cangamble]

5. I'd create a player rewards program with teeth in it. Players who came out to my facility to bet would enjoy a substantial reduced takeout vs those that stayed home. If there were laws standing in the way of that, again, I'd lobby the hell out of my elected state representatives to get things changed and publicize the hell out of the fact that I was doing that. Come out to my track and get an extra 4 pct off of a 12 pct takeout. You think I can't draw crowds back to racing?
*************************
I agree with everything but this.
It is better for the game if people are induced to bet from home. Bringing more people to the track won't bring in the people that make up the pools, and you want your players betting as much as possible as easily as possible.
Plus tracks don't need a bunch of $2 bettors coming to the track. They need to hire too much staff.
The buzz that occurs from people winning because the takeout is 12% would be great enough to attract many home bettors. I don't see the point in dragging them to the track.

[badcompany]

Originally Posted by robert99

However, racing bets have plummeted from about 90% of the total to 40%.
Why? - competition - sports, slots, lotteries, virtual racing video games, bet from tv - no skill, no knowledge, quick and easy - a bit of fun. Racing - hours of study and a daily grind to keep up - hard work for the next generation, forget it.

Sadly, I must agree. There are just too many options, and society is way too fragmented for horse racing to ever recapture its glory days.

[Jeff P]

North America. Turn of the century. No. Not this one. The one where the first two numbers went from 18 to 19.

Liquor stores are popular. The store owners don't really understand or even care about their customers. Why? The store owners have the only game in town and they know it. You wanna buy booze? You gotta buy it from us. Anybody who walks into my store I can treat them any way I want. I can get away with it because I'm the only one with a license to sell booze. And oh yes, they WILL buy booze. That's just the way it is.

After a while every time a customer walks into a liquor store in any neighborhood in North America they find they are treated like shit. Worse, the owners and the managers have been doing it for so long that they've taught their employees to treat the customers like shit. It's multi-generational and becomes hard wired into the way the store owners operate their businesses.

But the customer still wants to drink. So he puts up with it. For decades. Over the years the store owners let their stores become run down. New customers who come of age venture into a liquor store once and think "Yuck. The place is a dump and they treat me like shit there. Maybe I won't buy booze as often as my dad did." But they keep coming back. Because they can't buy booze anywhere else.

North America. Turn of the century. This one. Where the first two numbers went from 19 to 20...

The liquor store owners don't have it so good anymore. Suddenly others are competing for the dollars their customers are spending. The guy who wants to drink (bet) has choices now. Convenience stores and supermarkets (casinos, poker rooms, and lotteries) are sprouting up all over the place. Worse, the owners of the new convenience stores and supermarkets aren't treating the customer like shit... just the opposite in fact... and they sell booze (gambling) for less than the independent liquor stores do.

But the independent liquor store owners aren't too bright. They still insist on treating their customers like shit and charging them higher prices than the competition. They even band together (TrackNet) so that signals can be withheld from ADWs, limits can be raised so that players seeking rebates can be thwarted... but it's all in the name of keeping the staus quo so that the last remaining loyal customers their industry has can continue to be treated like shit.

All the customers born after 1965 that the industry should have won over are smart enough to not be treated like shit. They are buying their booze (gambling fix) from those new convenience stores and supermarkets... you know... the guys who understand customer needs and wants and who don't treat the customer like shit? The industry has literally missed the opportunity to win over an entire generation of customers.

Allowed to go on long enough, eventually the industry begins to die the slow painful death it so rightfully deserves.

Unless something changes.

I wonder what that little "something" might be?



-jp

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[JWBurnie]

With as many that play the daily lotto, why aren't they pushing bets like the Magna 5 down your throat via commercials on ESPN and posting signs where lotto is sold on what the carryover is. You can set-up an account w/ credit card in no time at all. Can you imagine if they ran the Magna 5 (or something similar) every Saturday afternoon for an hour on ESPN 2? That’s good action.



As for rewarding bettors that go to the track. Give pennies on the dollar bet back on losing tickets. Ex. $2 win bet - 3 cents, 2 exact - 4 cents, 2 tri - 5 cents. Keep the tracks clean and give people incentive to go for live racing. When people submit there losing tickets for a bet only voucher, require their Name, address & e-mail (give them a card/account number). Identify & track who your customers are, cater to them. Include them in specials and events. Set-up handicapping contests on a weekly basis; turn it into a league.

[Overlay]

The thread started with a question about how to make racing a more "mainline" sport. But, in my opinion, there are four major impediments that will always keep racing in a "minor league" status compared to sports like basketball, baseball, football, golf, etc.

First, people cannot identify with racing on the basis of their own personal participation, as they can with other sports.

Second, there's the length of time between races. (Even baseball compares favorably with racing from the standpoint of the overall pace of the action.)

Third is the fact that without the wagering and handicapping aspect, racing's fan base would evaporate -- as attested to, I think, by most of the posts in this thread dealing with that side of the game (such as the cost of past performances and so forth), or comparing racing to a casino, rather than anything to do with racing's nature as a sport. (Even though sizable amounts are wagered on other types of sports, those sports aren't dependent on wagering for their existence and revenue, as racing is.)

And that leads into the fourth hurdle: the difficulty of learning and mastering handicapping sufficiently to make it worthwhile to risk your money. Even if you give classes to people, only a small percentage of them will ever win consistently. Most people (with PA members being a notable exception) don't want to be bothered with that much effort. Sports betting, by contrast, boils down in people's minds to at worst a 50-50 chance (as opposed to finding the one winner in a field of horses).

Don't get me wrong, I'm a die-hard racing fan and supporter who loves the sport just for its history and color. But as the guy whom Andy Beyer quoted in one of his books said, "If I'd spent as much time reading law books as I have reading the Daily Racing Form, I'd be on the Supreme Court by now."

[phatbastard]

i live less than 45 minutes from Atlantic city.....haven't been in a casino for 6 years, yet i travel various distances to play the ponies.....young folks just need to see and feel the challenges and satisfaction..in selecting winners...i know it captured my heart 45 years ago

[o_crunk]

Originally Posted by 46zilzal

I try and try to get the younger crowd out and go over the basics with them ad nauseum: "That's too tough for me!"

I show them my records as to what types win on what surfaces and I hear things like "You're obsessed!" "Wow old man, how can you waste your time that way?"

Pointing out to them that is what it takes falls in deaf ears.

this is a bunch of hogwash, imho. the problem is you not the younger crowd. i am a part of the younger crowd and there was nothing more of a turn off then to see someone who was around the game for a very long time that knew leaps and bounds more than me.

people who know a lot tend to over-explain everything about every aspect of handicapping, what each number means in the pp's, etc. this is just a general trap of teaching (heck, i do it when i take my friends to the track).

someone starting out doesn't need to see YOUR meticulously kept records. they just need to start by being able to read what place the horse ran the last time they were on the track. and then it can grow from there. if interest is there kids will teach themselves, as i did. bombarding them with information they can't understand or digest all at once is perhaps the biggest turn off in my view.

i think a general mistake older people make is that young people today are NOT curious. fantasy football has attracted young people in droves who knew nothing about arcane football stats. kids are curious, kids like competition. they also like the ease of technology. freeing up pp will let software developers do some amazing things in my view. one of my past posts says as much.

railbird's last post is spot on also:

More geeks, more technologists, more people thinking deeply and creatively about points as diverse as PHP vs. Ruby, IPTV, experience design, usability, prediction markets, social networks, mashups, content distribution.

Racing needs a start-up culture.

THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT IS MISSING IN HORSERACING TODAY!!!!!

roll your eyes, go ahead. but kids can't relate to what is going on at the track today....and i think it's not because of the horse racing. the game just needs to brought up to speed with technology.

[46zilzal]

Originally Posted by o_crunk

this is a bunch of hogwash, imho. the problem is you not the younger crowd.

Hey chief I can only relate what I have observed.
Anti-intellectualism is very prevalent in that demographic here.