Sinking the Pirates - by Dan Liebman

re: Sinking the Pirates - by Dan Liebman

J.M. — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 18:26:53 GMT

The industry as a whole is strangling itself. Any piece of the industry could compete with the offshore guys if they either got over and started offering rebates themselves or dropped their commission rates. Players have gotten smarter they know that without a rebate even the best players have ZERO chance of winning. This is due to ridiculous take outs.

Some tracks have been successful in getting influxes of new bettors. At least once of my personal experience one such track was bought up and the new management changed procedures to be more like what they were used to. Everyone left.

Most of the ownership and controlling powers in this industry and the regulators over it long ago sat on a huge stick and no one has managed to pull it out yet.

re: Sinking the Pirates - by Dan Liebman

Timurlenk — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 15:51:00 GMT

Has the word GLOBALIZATION any meaning to our industry?

Face it, we have offshore booking and there is nothing we can do about it...unless we come with an appealing way of "internationalizing" the signals from our tracks and comingle the betting money.

Brainstorming season is open guys.

re: Sinking the Pirates - by Dan Liebman

MikeD — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 15:21:45 GMT

As long as off shore outfits give us bigger rebates and better customer service than racetracks and U.S. based ADW's, we will continue to wager our millions with them.

The industry has no one to blame but themselves.

re: Sinking the Pirates - by Dan Liebman

Drib1364 — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 14:28:00 GMT

The statement by Chris Scherf that "successful players often get cut off by the rebate shops" illustrates a dysfunctional racing industry. It is most important to distinquish between rebate shops that funnel their wagers directly into the parimutuel pools (no different than any USA based ADW), and bookmakers that hold bets while paying rebates. Obviuously, the latter are the real poison for the racing industry, and they are the only ones that would get rid of winning players.

re: Sinking the Pirates - by Dan Liebman

C Bea — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 19:10:17 GMT

Part of the problem is that the we've created more and more layers of regulation for the legal operators thus adding to their cost structure. Even this ARCI initiative is another layer. Racetrack due diligence, Commission due diligence, TRPB, ARCI all with a fee and/or time involved in order to be approved. The illegal outlets offer some cost advantage because they don't have the bureaucratic hurdles (and overhead) to overcome.

If there was one approval process and/or certification nationally or internationally efficiencies would be created that may allow legal outlets some room to operate.

With these multiple layers of approval and the horsemen cutting off signals to the domestic ADWs, the Industry is driving players to the off-shores (whether legal or illegal).

re: Sinking the Pirates - by Dan Liebman

David C — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 14:05:15 GMT

Control of its product should properly be at the top of priorities list for the racing industry. Certification is worthwhile and should be embraced. As we know, however, some will choose to deal with resellers regardless of the soundness of arrangement. As to being made whole on all non-pari-mutuel transactions like bookmaking and Betfair-like exchanges, racing faces an extremely steep hill. The more successful the industry is at generating increased awareness (via ADW, television, major events, etc.) the more exposure it will face on the pirating front. The good news is total control is no more realistic for racing than it would be for an NFL attempt to capture a portion of sports wagering proceeds (legal and otherwise). Racing must find means to grow the (pari-mutuel) model and, like the NFL, create new streams of (non pari-mutuel) revenue. Let’s face it, if we woke up tomorrow with safer surfaces, tote systems more secure, rules and regulations standardized and outrageous end-user taxes eliminated, the uninitiated still won’t beat down the doors of racetracks. Removing perceived impediments is only part of the equation; racing must begin to better align its core product to the mainstream.