West & WSJ in separate treatments re: racing's target audience
 

Does racing know its audience?

But even while they can't be neglected, these potential fans aren't the sport's natural, or indigenous, audience. Because this is a pastoral and cerebral game that requires patience, horse racing's natural audience is an older one, and that's a reality the sport shouldn't evade. The nearly 76 million people born between 1946 and 1964, the so-called Baby Boomers, for example, would seem to be a much more receptive audience for the sport than the Twilight crowd.

In New Jersey, New Gamblers Being Sought

The average age of U.S. horse-racing fans is 51, compared to 43 for football and 35 for basketball, according to a 2011 industry study conducted by the McKinsey consulting firm. About 2% of fans die each year, and only 14% of those following the sport started in the last five years, the study showed.

Two articles from the last few days to compare and discuss..

Gary West's ESPN piece tried to explain the folly in the game marketing to people too young to participate meaningfully and the breadth of reachable potential players among Baby Boomers. The Journal had a rather poorly written hodge podge Monday about the newest luxury OTB in New Jersey that attempted to touch on the demographics of the wagering facility.

There's a happy medium out there between cultivating 20-30's types and helping them become serious players (and owners) later in life when they have the time and money. There's certainly roadblocks (takeout, etc.) involved that need addressing, but start by at least properly recognizing the marketplace and targeting efforts appropriately...

I thought this part of West's article hit the nail:

Exactly.

It's a very fine line. The example using other sports is bad one. The average age of attendance at sporting events may be high but that doesn't stop the younger generations from buying jerseys, playing licensed games, and playing fantasy sports. People are still involved... they just don't have the ability, capital or simple desire to see games live.

Horse racing on the other hand will have a problem in 25 years. I'm one of the younger members of derby trail and i have zero friends in my age group that actively follow horse racing. Sure they may tag along for a derby, breeders cup, or a week-end night at a local track... but they really don't care. I've grown up in an era where horse racing gets bumped off of espn for little league baseball.

If horse racing wants to survive after the boomers die, they will need to re-brand the sport. I have zero idea's on what this would entail though. When poker is legal again...and it will be soon.... you'll see a nice drop off from handles.It's built for my generation. You can play multiple tables and get constant action....

Just my two cents for what they are worth

25 years ago, people said that racing would have a problem now. That song never changes.

Paul

This. Us young'ns don't have the patience/attention span to learn to read a racing form. I've only convinced one of my friends, many of whom play poker regularly to learn how to read a past performance.

The people who I'm surprised don't jump into horse betting with great interest are all these Sabermetric/stat geek baseball fans. If they bothered to pickup a drf just imagine how they could break down all the different stats, and prioritize which ones are most important to them.

I get Gary West's argument, but you still need to get the 20/30-somethings to have a genuine interest in the sport. Because I doubt when they're nearing retirement that they'll learn out as a new hobby.

Were they wrong?

About the age demographic of the player/fan base? Yes.. The 'problems' the game faces are not based around how the age of participants. Yet decade after decade it's the first admonishment regarding the sports' future.

I'll bet the same thing could have been said of poker before the World Series of Poker was televised and exploded.

In fact, Texas Hold 'Em was not a well known variant of poker outside of Texas and Nevada 20 or 30 years ago.

We need a televised tournament, edited the same way that the format of WSOP was a couple of years ago - setup of strategy, highlights of big scores, odds changes, shots of celebratory and disappointed players. The leaderboard. In my humble opinion there are similarities that can be drawn.

And another key ingredient of the WSOP Main Event fields: distinctive and colorful personalities. Horse racing has had those in abundence forever.

A televised world series of handicapping sounds like a good idea. Maybe around the Breeders Cup next year.

I just don't see how it could be made dramatically interesting to watch. Not because handicapping isn't interesting, but because it's internal (most of it happens in the head). Even with poker, in the televised games I've seen, they have a camera so that the audience gets an omniscient view of the game- they see the cards the other players don't, which heightens the viewing interest, because the game just isn't exciting enough without that extra knowledge. Plus, the action actually happens during the game itself- the players change strategy, betting tactics, etc., depending on how the game is unfolding. In handicapping, it's all done before the race starts. Plus, poker players are facing their opponents throughout a single game, while handicappers are staring at a screen for two minutes several times over the course of a contest.

If someone can figure out how to make the actual analyzing the past performances dramatically interesting, as in, the audience is chewing their nails with anxiety over which horse the player is going to select, they'll have a, well if not a million dollar idea, at least a hundred thousand dollar idea. I just can't figure out how the process of handicapping could be presented as exciting to watch, and compelling in its immediacy. Because good TV is all about conflict and excitement in that moment. Not saying it's impossible, but I can't figure out how it could be done.

On a live basis you would have the semi-finals on BC Friday and the World Series Finals on Sat. Do the whole card each day, televise their picks prior to each race within the live television format and post handicapping results and leaderboard.

On a taped basis you could edit a lot of drama into a 1/2 hr or hr show. Show the ML, each horses best Beyer (or whatever speed figs are used) and last race Beyer as the cappers post their picks. Only the audience can see the picks as they are placed. The stretch run of each race could be shown after the audience know the picks and the standings coming into the race and what has to happen to affect the standings. The picks will be revealed to the players as the race starts.

I dont see how a tv handicapping tournament could be anything but awful tv. It would be similar to listening to guys talk about their fantasy football teams. We dont need to try to emulate poker because not only has that ship sailed but as genuine risk points out, it is an entirely different type of action.