Let’s Change Our Sell-By Date
Ever wondered why racing is unable to grow its customer base and looking quite content despite a declining trend?
Leon Smuts writes that some might call it apathy, others greed or asset plundering and even incompetence or perhaps being stuck in a glory days scenario and unable to change. The reality is that very few in the industry believes in the sports ability to turn its fortunes around, which partially explains the limited budgets allocated and efforts to expand racing relative to the overwhelming preservation thereof.
Betting operators finding greener pastures
Can we really blame betting operators for searching for greener pastures when so much is spent on racing for such a measly return? The old saying about not throwing good money after bad comes to mind even though most of us will vigorously defend the preservation of racing. If this was our own business I have no doubt that we would have done the same, so attacking operators is hypocritical at best.
Does this mean that racing has no future and that we should start saying our goodbyes to the sport we have loved for so long? I hope that it will never come to that but we have to be prepared for a reduced offering in terms of service levels and the number of services available to us. Something has to give, and it will no doubt be felt across the loyal but ageing following that has supported racing for so many years.
Some suggest that racing is past its sell by date and that it will never experience the support that it once did up to the early eighties. Looking at our own and global annual big race days reveals a remarkable turnout for a sport that is supposed to be faced with “rigor mortis” in the near future. This is a key pointer towards a future that could be as the numbers suggest a sport that is very much alive, albeit not well, but that shows vibrance and resilience, certainly enough to still be capable of attracting a valuable and meaningful cross section of society to these occasions.
So what can betting operators do to turn attendance into active and continued participation which will help to make racing profitable again and restore it to a valuable and indispensable contributor to annual results?
This has been the most enigmatic challenge facing racing for a few decades now and one that is fast fading as a quest given the many years of failed attempts to do so. Given the lack of success in this area actually presents a very profitable opportunity as a solution will offer very sustainable growth off a very low base with great future yield possibilities.
Speculating on this would not be appropriate without offering a potential solution and a number of years of research suggest that it is in the area of product development where we will find the elusive answer.
What would a new product need to do to serve as an effective acquisition tool that will aid and inspire marketers to promote the game and more importantly help to restore an operator’s belief in actively promoting the racing side of the business?
There are two things that stand out as product design features needed to drive new interest in racing.
Firstly racing has to be able to offer life changing prize money on a regular basis, with jackpots that can come close to or rival casino or lottery pools and pay outs, for which we need a continuously growing format to facilitate a constant new interest. These pools needs to be advertised and regularly updated in the media and on digital platforms to grow the hype and to give racing long overdue new exposure. The “Racing, it’s a Rush” face book page could be a perfect platform for regular updates to build on the social outreach program and to offer a tangible reason to consider involvement over and beyond lifestyle appeal.
The second needed feature is definitely the most important aspect to consider in product design and this is the ability to keep new players involved in game play for an extended period of time and to reward regular participation. We need to overcome racing’s greatest drawback, the long learning curve associated with becoming a successful player. It is only when we can turn occasional and casual players into learning curve graduates that we will be able to move forward into profitable territory for racing. Turnover, racing’s understandable but misguided current priority happens to be a natural by-product of customer growth and as such the latter should be the most important objective to pursue.
Once customer numbers start rising on a sustainable basis, many of the current difficulties demanding constant attention and monetary challenges, will fade into nothing. A large and growing customer base would open doors to media coverage, new and bigger sponsorships and word of mouth, not to mention social significance and turnover gains.
Betting operators should act now and lead in the racing future that could be rather than condemning it to obscurity by not actively seeking a racing solution.
