The following is a truncated, albeit long winded, version of my presentation prior to a round table panel discussion. We’ll post a summary that combines your HRI poll suggestions with my input that was submitted to conventioneers in tomorrow’s Morning Line blog.
On balance, I thought the presentation went pretty well. The reaction from attendees appeared animated and mostly positive. Or, as my Capital OTB-TV colleague Andrea DeLong put it as I walked out: “Well done, you blabber-mouth.”
Now, has anyone racetrack ads on the World Series of Poker telecasts? Maybe you have but I haven‘t….
Actually, racing can’t compete with poker. The cost of the racing product and the learning curve is too high. Racing can do something about both but, admittedly, that will take some time and time is running out.
But there is something we can do right now, however: We’re in the gambling business and we have to stop apologizing for that. I say we because I have a vested interest in the game; I’m too old to find a real job.
Why is it that, on balance, we give people a good shake for their money; offer great odds, opportunities for potential scores, but we never brag about that. What are we afraid of here, a vast right-wing religious conspiracy?
The lottery with its usurious takeout rates rip off Americans every day but racing never negatively campaigns against it. Why? Are we afraid of the state houses we’re forced to do business with?
The lottery and VLTs work because they are both mindless forms of instant entertainment and gratification. And the odds are about a million-to-one that people will make a life-changing score….
Horseplayers have an opportunity to make a life-changing score maybe 20 times a day. Our odds are much better, but nobody knows that, because every time we talk about gambling entertainment we do it with our hat in our hands.
Is a day at the races--the most fun that intelligent, successful and social people can have--out of step in the video game age, a mountain too steep to climb?
Perhaps, but simulcasting is the ultimate video game that offers a different kind of instant entertainment and gratification, and a chance to make a lot of money….
The drawback, of course, is that your customers have to be willing to think. If they are, this thing of ours still works, and it works big-time. In fact, the thinking part, like chess or bridge, is the fun part.
Everyone in this room was taught to fish at an early age and we’re still chasing that big catch, still trying to make a memory at the races. Wagering is the only thing that will save and grow this game again.
But first we must stop apologizing….
Mainstream media corporations look at our attendance figures and think we’re history. We can show them that they’re wrong.
What if every OTB or simulcast venue put in, say, a turnstile, for the sole purpose of counting the number of people that participate in the racing experience by making a bet, or two, or 20, every day?
Would the media ignore--I don’t know--100,000 people a day in New York City, or Los Angeles, or Miami? Wouldn’t they try to find a way to exploit that market instead?
Because of the Internet, it’s encouraging that fans and bettors are beginning to be heard. These are my constituents, and your customers. Please, talk to each other.
Every facet of the industry--from stewards, to track executives, to bet-takers--needs to speak with one voice….”
14 Oct 2009 at 03:01 am | #
Excellent analysis. The problem is racetrack executives don’t see it as a gambling game,which is hard to believe. The characters of the track have never been given substantial air time. Who is more interesting to listen to Jerry Bailey or Andy Beyer ? Bailey is articulate,but a bettors analysis would make the telecast much more interesting. Harvey Pack,without making any picks,made the game both fun and fascinating. He helped grow a legion of bettors who are still around,but are seldom seen on any national telecast.
14 Oct 2009 at 03:11 am | #
Your point that racing fails to exploit its potential life-changing, or even week-changing, scores is spot on. One need only to look at the exotic payoffs from Giacomo’s Kentucky Derby and lack of subsequent marketing of those to understand why racing fails to attract new customers or bring in some business from lottery/slots players.
The Breeders’ Cup produces terrific payoffs year after year yet the organization has never promoted those figures in follow-up marketing. Probably the closest thing done in that regard was the publicity from the Fix Six!
With a starless, other than Zenyatta, event on the horizon, the BC would be wise to promote itself as one of the best wagering opportunities around rather than making meaningless attempts to attract attention and runners through purse hikes (read: appearance fees).
I’m on plenty of gambling mail/email lists and not a week goes by that I don’t receive some communication from the industry promoting a giant jackpot payoff - and I don’t even play slots! But I have never once received communication from within the racing industry promoting a huge superfecta or multi-race payout.
14 Oct 2009 at 04:01 am | #
Gee, golly, how about that! Am I starting to read that turf writers are going to start promoting the gambling aspects of racings; that they finally get it: racing is about gambling, about cashing tickets; that the horse is not the attraction, the betting window is; now, who would have thunk that such would occur?
In a few minutes I am leaving for the Mohegan Sun racebook for the sole purpose to gamble. I am sure that 99.9% of all other horseplayers are heading today to OTBs, racetracks, racinos, racebooks, or using their ADW account for the very same reason; none of us would be interested if the ability to gamble did not exist - so much for the draw of the thoroughbred.
Quoting Mr. Pricci, “We are in the gambling business, and we have to stop apologizing for that.” It has taken Mr. Pricci several decades to admit it; now if he can get the other turf writers coast to coast to utter the same words, and to direct their commentary away from the thoroughbred and to promote gambling; informing slot players and the unknowing just what $2 can accomplish - hallelujah!
14 Oct 2009 at 04:43 am | #
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14 Oct 2009 at 05:07 am | #
Sadly, the horseracing industry has shown, time and again, that it is not capable of getting its act together - too many horses, laxity on medication We need a racing czar imposed on the industry - one who understands what drives racing - i.e.,the bettor.
14 Oct 2009 at 06:42 am | #
Good to see Mr Pricci finally sees things your way, Wendell. You truly are the pulse of this blog. Keep up the good work. Lay off the free booze at Mohegan. Drinking distortes your handicapping.
14 Oct 2009 at 06:59 am | #
Racing has made a tacit agreement not to market against the lottery. In a rational, uncorrupt world of course you would take on your competition, especially when your product is far superior. How hard would it be to explain to the consumer that the lottery takes 50% from a dollar bet and racing 25%? You would simply market apples against apples, ie...superfectas, pick fours, trifectas and pick threes against the lottery’s daily pick three and pick four. That would be the OBVIOUS place for racing to start. But OTBs are vendors for the lottery and state politics have strangleholds over racing.
Conversely, there is a place where racing could partner efectively with the lottery and that would be with a Kentucky Derby Lottery. A national lottery wherein you have to pick the top six finishers in order. Before the draw players can pick their own numbers; after the draw only quick picks are allowed. That would capture the general imagination.
14 Oct 2009 at 10:09 am | #
Kyle,
That certainly captured my imagination, a Kentucky Derby Lottery with picking your numbers before the draw and Quik Pick types afterwards.
Or make it a handicapping contest picking, say, finishers 1 through 20. The closest to 1 through 20 wins. Something like that, who knows?
As far as any tacit agreements, you have your finger on the political pulse. But racing needs to grow a pair. Then let the state justify how it keeps half of every dollar wagered. No one said a fight like this would be easy.
Wendell,
Mr. Kling is going to get angry with me for responding to you, especially this time, when your observation that I finally get it is, well, silly.
So, let me repeat this again, and again, and again:
WHERE IS IT WRITTEN THAT GAMBLING AND SPORT HAVE TO BE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE???
Certainly isn’t re: the NFL. Those hypocrites!
Aaron, Roger, JP: Write on. Where IS Harvey Pack when you really need him?
P.S. Wendell. Listening to a discussion at the International Simulcast Conference this morning, panelist Andrea DeLong gave the results of a poll she took, asking people why they went to the racetrack.
You might be interested to learn that 56% were there because “they love horses,” 30% “loved the sport,” and 11 percent were there “for the betting.”
Then you’ll probably reject her findings because they don’t agree with yours. As for me, it’s worth repeating:
WHERE IS IT WRITTEN THAT GAMBLING AND SPORT HAVE TO BE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE?
Tolerance, Wendell, tolerance.
JRP
14 Oct 2009 at 10:31 am | #
Mr. Pricci: Andrea DeLong’s poll is simply bull!
If you believe that 30% go to a track because “they love horses, and only 11% are there to bet”, then you need a vacation.
(I can’t believe that I am writing the following): If there were no betting windows, no ability to gamble, would anyone go to a racetrack, racino, racebook, OTB, or have a ADW account?
This is getting ridiculous.
14 Oct 2009 at 10:39 am | #
The poll is not bull. I know a lot of folks who go to the track just for enjoyment. Racetrack attendance is not what keeps racing going. - OTBs racinos, internet wagering etc. do.
14 Oct 2009 at 10:40 am | #
John,
I’m with Wendell on this. 11% are there for the betting?? That’s absurd. At most racetracks, I’d say the figure is more like 90-95%. Perhaps at Saratoga the figure is lower due to the tourists who tend to frequent the town/track. But Aqueduct?? Philly Park?? Belmont?? Come on,the vast majority of faces are there day in and day out. And the only reason they’re in attendance is to gamble.
14 Oct 2009 at 10:42 am | #
Keep setting the record straight Wendell!! We love ya!!
14 Oct 2009 at 05:21 pm | #
I don’t know at which track(s) Ms. DeLong conducted her poll, but I don’t doubt those results at a number of meets. It simply reinforces the fact that racing is doing little to attract gamblers and that the potential for handle growth is enormous if they are properly targeted and understand the payoff possibilities. I wonder what percentage of patrons at the boutique meets even understand what a superfecta is? I can’t begin to count the number of times I have been asked, “How much can I win?” by newbies who don’t comprehend the nature of pari-mutuel betting. Conversely, I suspect most regular powerball players know the weekly jackpot total.
15 Oct 2009 at 12:21 am | #
JRP,
Who could anyone get angry at you? You dazzling urbanite, you, now turned dazzling upstate apple knocker.
How long before I can get you and Gene Stevens to the tractor pull at the county fair?
15 Oct 2009 at 02:09 am | #
Nick,
My only serious objection to your post is that you included me in the same sentence with Gene Stevens.
As for the rest of you, this was my bad. The DeLong poll was not bull! I was inaccurate.
The poll was conducted among newcomers to racing and from all over the country, not, say, in an OTB in downtown Schenectady.
Frankly, the poll result didn’t make sense to me, either. But I have known Ms. DeLong for years and would never question her integrity. Why would anyone who answered the call when asked to share their views voluntary bother to bend the truth?
Her career in racing has gone from an assistant trainer to her current involvement with in televised racing, behind and in front of the camera. So lighten up on the criticism of her and put it on me, where it belongs.
Thank you all for your comments and we regret the error.
JRP
15 Oct 2009 at 06:07 am | #
JP,
In following the conference best I can, I noticed some statements as to the fact that the industry will never volentarily change it’s stripes.
There may be no truer words put forth then the statement that the industry is happy to be a welfare reciepient! A tiny bit of history. This goes back to the days when racing had the only show in town.then a lottery came along. The industry cried and moaned. “We can’t compete with that!”. And so it went as more states introduced lotteries, then gaming. To this day I can’t remember even one advertising campaign of any kind educating people to the fact that racing offers extremely low odds to win as compared to any other form of gambling, not one! all they did was keep crying, let their facilities run down and worse of all, FAILED TO CATER TO THE YOUNGER GENERATION!
In this age of technolgy and video, most folks like to sit on their butts at home and wager. so be it! Go after it! Stop ignoring the Computer Betting whalres! Go after them! I’ve been in this industry my entire life, arguing this point for years, always wathcing it fall on deaf ears as to the powers that be. Computer betting, stay at home betting,, doesn’t matter. that is where the future of the industry lies and we better embrace it now before the industry dies out completely!
One other thing. I certainly can identify with the poll as to folks that go because of a love for horse. I know many people, young and old that say the same thing to me. “Is there anything more beautiful that a horse in full stride?” I believe, JP, was it you? I read during the conference soameone said we have the Ultimate Video Game. How true!
15 Oct 2009 at 12:44 pm | #
JB,
I’m not the romantic that referred to the beauty of a horse in full stride. Wish I had. But I will take credit for calling racing, as it exists now, the ultimate video game.
It was Eugene Christiansen’s quote re: never voluntarily changing. We will feature it on Friday’s Morning Line blog.
Thanks for commenting.
JRP
15 Oct 2009 at 04:43 pm | #
Andrea stated that her poll was of ThoroFan members. Obviously, if it was of HANA members the results would be different. The relevance is that there are many newcomers in ThoroFan and the poll was about their likes and dislikes.