Is California Lookng at a New Delivery Mechanism?

[trigger]

Originally Posted by DeanT

Betfair also struck a deal with Thorograph to offer those products for free for bettors.

Can't find anything on Betfair site about this. Where can I get the details on this perk? Thanks

[DeanT]

Originally Posted by trigger

Can't find anything on Betfair site about this. Where can I get the details on this perk? Thanks

http://www.betfairpromo.com/inplay/2...turefocus.html

When North American ADW's say you can't offer data free, or low prices, or can only let you have an ashtray as a perk for 10k bet, well others are doing it just fine.

[DeanT]

Originally Posted by DJofSD

For the horse racing industry to survive they have to get beyond the regionalism and self-limiting way of doing business. Racing has to change and to embrace the changes. By that I mean technology changes everything and racing needs to adjust to that reality.

Absolutely agree.

We see what goes on in places that have grown, yet we seem to do the opposite. Someone in state "A" can not open an account with youbet, someone in state "b" can't open an account with PTC, et etc. We can't even get our domestic players to play in one ADW, the laws are so 1930.

And on top of it, we can't bet a race over the Internet from Arizona. That sounds like an old rule we would want to fix, but the fact is it was enacted in 2007.

We think fractured, and small, concentrating on keeping the players we have left. We never think big by encouraging our existing base to bet more, and trying to reach new players. Betfair and places like that do, and that is why they grow.

[rrbauer]

Originally Posted by DeanT

We think fractured, and small, concentrating on keeping the players we have left.

That's some great concentration: Must be a lot of industry execs with ADS!

[gm10]

To answer a few questions.

Most punters over here are convinced that Betfair and the Californian tracks are cutting a deal. This would probably involve
making the signal available through either the betfair website or Attheraces, a British TV channel that broadcasts American racing every day. I think that Betfair would also get access to the pools. They have cut a similar deal in Britain with the local tote (similar to American tote, and another competitor to the traditional bookies).

It makes sense for Betfair. American racing is popular in Britain and it is on at the right time of day. There is no more British racing on at that time, and people are still watching and wanting to bet. It makes sense for California tracks. It opens a big new stream of revenue and will give them a technological edge over other tracks - this is the future, make no doubt about it. Whether Californian bettors would have access ... I couldn't make any informed comments on this.

When I asked Betfair about the suspension of Californian markets, they said they were sorting out a legal argument. I'm 99% sure this means that they
are working out which product they and Cal tracks can legally offer. There is no legal reason to suspend the markets otherwise. There is nothing wrong
with organizing a British-based market on any horse race in the world.

Betfair has its own pools. These are restricted to win and show for American racing. You'd be surprised at the size of the pools. There is usually 60K dollar in the win pool for races that are being shown on Attheraces. Especially at the smaller tracks, there is more money in the betfair pools than in the American pools. Stop and pause at that statement. Would you expect 200K dollar being bet across the pond, on a 5K maiden claimer at Penn National? I can tell you that this is the case. I bet on American racing every day, and the amount of money bet on tracks like Penn National, Mountaineer, Presque Isle Downs, etc is astounding. The takeout is only 5% and even less for big bettors (!!!).

Finally, you can access Betfair from the States but you can't log in. I tried this when I was at Monmouth Park last year.