NBC beats Fox for Derby rights

[Dahoss]

Originally Posted by hi_im_god

i play poker and bet horses. handicapping races successfuly is magnitudes of difficulty harder than winning at cards. i don't think there's any way you can "educate" a general audience on handicapping in a way that doesn't drive most of them to another channel.

If you can educate just one person, it would be a good start. The problem is, a lot of the times the "experts" aren't experts at all. There are some really sharp minds in horse racing and people with a lifetime of knowledge.

What I'm suggesting is, on big race days, instead of 90% of the TV coverage being about fluff, split it up a bit. Introduce some of the basics and do a little teaching. It could be incorporated into the upcoming race. What is the worst that could happen? A few more people become interested in betting, because they know more about it and won't feel like they are wasting their time.

Horse racing tries to be something it isn't. Instead of embracing what it is, the want to make themselves Disney and it isn't.

[MaTH716]

Originally Posted by Dahoss

If you can educate just one person, it would be a good start. The problem is, a lot of the times the "experts" aren't experts at all. There are some really sharp minds in horse racing and people with a lifetime of knowledge.

What I'm suggesting is, on big race days, instead of 90% of the TV coverage being about fluff, split it up a bit. Introduce some of the basics and do a little teaching. It could be incorporated into the upcoming race. What is the worst that could happen? A few more people become interested in betting, because they know more about it and won't feel like they are wasting their time.

Horse racing tries to be something it isn't. Instead of embracing what it is, the want to make themselves Disney and it isn't.

Realistically, this is something that should be done to a level on racing channels such as TVG and HRTV. I'll use TVG as an example (because that the only one I have), but they really don't do things like that and they are a full time racing channel. Sure they give out picks and (usually ridculous) pick 4 plays. But they really don't have kind of basic handicapping teaching show. I don't know what percentages of households have one of the channels, but maybe that would be the way to go. A major network would only cover so much time in a segment about basic capping. But have TVG sponser the spot and then have them promote their daily handicapping show/series. This way if someone is interested about exploring different types of angles/bets, he/she would be able to tune in and maybe pick something up.

Really what harm could it do for TVG to produce 5 one hour shows and air them one a day in the morning before live racing starts? It could benifit them for current and possible future customers.