Jockey Club -- they don't get it.

[Calzone Lord]

Looks like they have a 'plan for growth!'

http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-raci...wth?source=rss


My favorite part:

The report touched on exchange wagering, which is not yet available in the United States. McKinsey believes exchange betting has the potential to attract new patrons; Singer said the platform is “unlikely to be profitable at a takeout rate under 10%.

Forget about exchange wagering if that is the case ... absolutely dead on arrival. What a bunch of friggen worthless morons.

An exchange with a takeout of 10+% is going to have no liquidity and will be an absolute disaster.

An exchange with a 3% takeout would be more profitable early-on - from the first week - and infinitely more profitable after a few months.

Exchange wagering even works very well in freaking Europe ... and European horse racing is an absolute pile of sh!t for someone who wants to handicap and bet seriously.

I'll give Jerry Brown credit for thinking you can make figures for those races over there...but in most instances, you can't... and even attempting to do so is foolish unless you have races on the same day and same distance run with
a similar pace.


As for this gem:

The report acknowledged that 26% of core bettors consider pari-mutuel takeout a “top two concern,” but fewer than 2% of most fans know about takeout. Thus, the report makes no recommendations on an issue that has boiled over this year, particularly in California.

“We prefer rebates as the method to address the price-sensitive bettor,” Singer said.

All bettors are "price sensitive" -- even the ones who have no idea about what a takeout is and don't really care that much if they win or lose.

I'm a fan of rebates - rebates are great --- but, in my opinion, they are not the way to go for industry growth. By rewarding (often) the best players -- and giving them a reason to jack up their handle -- you're only making it that much harder for the small-fries who bet $20 a race at the same wildly inflated takeout levels as before.

I'm not ever going to argue against rebates -- that would be too hypocritical even for me ... but its my opinion (and I could be very wrong about this) -- rebates will have no positive impact a couple of years later -- and they might actually even be bad for the industry in the long run.