The major expansion of social media and its elements such as Facebook and the internet has resulted in the situation in which perceptions have replaced facts.
Horse racing has not escaped these strange times.
Stewart Ramsay writes in the Sporting Post Mailbag in response to our call to make a constructive suggestion to improve racing.
Every announcement and news story is met with a barrage of comments on social media. Unfortunately many of these comments are negative.
That is not surprising because social media is the breeding ground of negativity.
With regards to the future of South African horse racing there has been no shortage of comments on what should be done and who should do what.
When one sorts through all the debates and comments there is one fact that cannot be disputed.
Namely the number of people betting on horse racing has diminished, and in turn tote turn overs are seriously down.
This is the major problem facing horse racing.
Racing derives its income from betting/tote turnovers – it is the lifeblood of horseracing.
You can change the companies/structures administering horse – but if tote turnovers do not produce the situation in which income equals expenditure, then racing will not survive.
Therefore with regard to bettering horse racing the perfect solution would be that such element of betterment also contains a high element of assisting racing to survive.
Such a solution could be on the back of the Pick 6.
The Pick 6 provides a highly important element in that it provides the attraction of a big pool, which in turn provides racing with a marketing concept.
But the Pick 6 creates two major negatives:
Firstly it creates too many losers
Secondly it ties up a percentage of the day’s betting turnover for the majority of the race meeting.
Owing to the nature of the Pick 6 it provides a highly limited number of winners per meeting
Consequently it produces a high number of losing punters.
Obviously, the more a punter loses, the less they have to reinvest.
So the Pick 6 is the bet which is the biggest contributor to lowering the amount of disposable betting funds punters have to reinvest
Also, as it is staged on the last six races of the day, it ties up a high percentage of the punters disposable betting funds for virtually the whole meeting.
This completely negates the opportunity to re-invest winnings and this fact is a further contribution to lowering the tote turnover of the meeting.
There is a solution to the above issues which, at the same time, could provide a major element to better racing.
The solution is provided by Lotto.
To win the Lotto main pool you have to correctly Pick 6 numbers.
But – and it is a big BUT – Lotto have a payout for those that correctly pick five – and four, and three and two numbers.
Why?
Because Lotto want to create as many winners as possible, because they know that winners reinvest.
Also, because they know that providing multiple winning opportunities is a major incentive for people to invest.
So racing should follow Lotto.
In the Pick 6, racing should also have a payout for those that pick five, four and three winners.
It will create more winners who will reinvest, and provide a higher incentive to invest.
In addition, the sequence of races on which the Pick 6, and for that matter, the Place Accumulator are staged, should be altered.
The Pick 6 and PA both end in the last race of the day. So if you win either bet, there are no more races left in which to reinvest your winnings
If the Pick 6 and PA ended in the second last race of the day you can take 1-5 that those that won would re-invest a percentage of their winnings, and thus boost the day’s tote turnover.
There will be different opinions on the above, but I believe that those administering racing should give these suggestions consideration.
