All Quiet Re: Ellis Pick 4
I’m no math genius, far from it. But a wager that puts the odds in our favor over the long term, one where track executives and horsemen and legislators from the Commonwealth of Kentucky came together and took a risk for our gain and, ultimately, theirs?
This is a very big deal, and nobody seems to care.
Reaction, any reaction, yeah or nay, was anticipated. It would have been a welcome start to meaningful dialogue between racing’s considerable uncounted majority and the industry (simulcastors and OTBs don’t take attendance). Instead, reaction was next to nothing.
My guess? Because it’s Ellis Park, and it’s one wager. If Del Mar announced lower takeout on the pick six or NYRA on all exotic plays, there’d probably be more buzz.
Pricci’s right though that Ellis took a big step, and that lowered takeout, along with expanded wagering options, are necessary for the industry to climb past the $15 billion handle plateau it’s been stuck at since 2000. T.D. Thornton briefly mentioned P2P platforms and betting exchanges in his Blood-Horse chat last month, only two weeks after an article applying “The Long Tail” to racing appeared in the magazine. The ideas are percolating; their implementation will be slow. That’s the way of things in racing, where any innovations, particularly those that are technology-based, are approached gingerly, considered threatening to the business models that have stood largely unchanged for 80 years, rather than embraced as opportunities for tremendous, exciting growth. Other industries, such as music and print media, have been just as wary, but they haven’t had the luxury of ignoring technology’s disruptive effects and doling out changes on their terms to customers. What racing needs is a similar sort of pressure, a few good start-ups shaking up content and wagering models. That’s when horseplayers and racing fans will start to get what they want, at the prices they’re looking for.
More on the Ellis Park Pick 4: “For the first time ever, horseplayers now have a positive expectation on their investment” (MSNBC).
Bet Needs a Payoff
Andrew Beyer on the TrackNet/TVG/ADW mess:
Churchill, Magna and TVG are pursuing a course of action all too familiar in the racing industry: forgetting about their bettors as they look after their own interests. This time, the industry has angered and alienated many of its dwindling number of customers, who want to make their own free choices about what they can bet and where they can bet.
CDI Buys BRIS, AmericaTab
Big news out of Kentucky this morning: Churchill Downs Incorporated has bought BRIS and AmericaTab.
6/29/07 Update: “Evans said establishment of twinspires.com and the subsequent acquisition of three Internet wagering companies gives CDI 20% of the Internet wagering market, the fastest growing segment of horse race wagering. Noting that wagering on Thoroughbred racing has been flat for the past decade, Evans said the challenge for CDI is to increase its market share” (Blood-Horse).
About
Jessica Chapel writes and edits in Massachusetts. Railbird is a Thoroughbred horse racing blog published from June 2004 to July 2019. More / Contact
Elsewhere
Find Jessica on Pinboard and Instagram, Railbird on LibraryThing and Twitter.
Etc.
Links
Search
Boston Racing
Spreadsheets/Data
← Home
Copyright © 2000-2023 by Jessica Chapel. All rights reserved.