Lessons Learned from Australia Racing Prove when a Gambling Pie Grows, It Can Benefit Everyone Back in 2008, Australia began opening up their betting markets. In particular, corporate bookmakers and exchanges were allowed to flourish, offering racing and sports betting customers myriad choice. As we've often noticed in horse racing when presented with something new, [...]

About a decade ago now, I remember dutifully playing the races one evening. I had Penn National and Mountaineer up on my two screens, looking to make a few dollars. In one of the early races at the Mountain there was an infraction the stewards were examining–an inside horse was drifting mercilessly, moving the outside [...]

In Part I – This Time, Horse Racing's Aging Demographic Problem is Very Real, we examined the changing gambling markets, racing's reliance on patrons over the age of 60 and why the recent trends are troubling. The piece submitted evidence that while younger, smart, tech-savvy gamblers are seeking more and more skill games to play, [...]

For decades, the horse racing chicken littles have been proven wrong with their “our patrons are dying off” narrative, but the tide is changing and racing needs to be ready for it. Alarmism is defined by the Merriam Webster dictionary as the “often unwarranted exciting of fears or warning of danger.” If we turn on [...]

Giving players–especially newer customers–a chance at winning money is something racing sorely needs for engagement and long-term growth. As I am sure you've heard, handicapping contests have been in the news lately. Because I'm a horseplayer and not Matlock, I'm not going to dip my toe into the legal wranglings regarding them. But I would [...]

For the past few years, the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA) has been lobbying for changes to the tax code on behalf of racetracks and betting customers. Since the late 1960's, single wagers paying over 300-1 were reported to be taxed, and bets that pay over $5,000 were subject to withholding. The NTRA believes that [...]

“Non-blockbuster” tracks are swimming with the sharks, but speaking directly to the sports' gambling “super user” represents a workable way forward. In part I, published Mar. 8, we examined the Pegasus World Cup in the context of what's happening in the new, connected world. We think The Stronach Group is on the right track. Using [...]

It's more than about just big events. It's happening everywhere and The Stronach Group is right in the thick of it. Back in 2009, Wired magazine's Chris Anderson wrote a book about something called the “long tail.” This thesis centered on the fact that the internet allowed massive amounts of information, copious products, and other [...]

If you want to take part in an interesting discussion in horse racing, bring up past performance and other general racing data: “It should be free!” “It's like a restaurant charging for us to look at the menu!” “The NFL doesn't charge for box scores, do they?” From a customer perspective these arguments make perfect [...]

We've heard many times that horse racing needs its star horses, because star horses drive interest in the sport. The wish and want for a Triple Crown winner for years is prime evidence of that. I, like most of you, agree with the supposition in principle. However, I think this wish has many problematic issues [...]

The Jockey Club's 64th annual Round Table Conference took place on Sunday at the Gideon Putnam Hotel in Saratoga Springs. As I usually find with this conference, the speakers were interesting and informative, and I learned something. One speaker stood out to me, however, because he shared something that I found particularly compelling. Kip Levin, [...]

While some tracks struggle, others surge. How does your track fit into the new racing landscape? At the end of every month when Equibase releases the monthly Thoroughbred racing handle figures (along with the running yearly statistics) we see headlines that things were up, stagnant, or down. Sometimes these numbers elicit quite a bit of [...]