Very interesting from the tribune on Duncan Howells website

Round up friends and go racing
by andrew September 23, 2014
Andrew Harrison

Two events in recent weeks brought home to me just what a difficult task the operators of thoroughbred horse racing in South Africa face if the sport is to expand or for that matter maintain its market share of the leisure/gambling rand in order to keep the sport attractive, vibrant and growing.

At a recent Gold Circle management workshop, guest speaker and strategic business consultant Gavin Symanowitz, cut to the chase. Yes, all components and participants in the sport, or industry as you wish, were important but he stressed that the single most important component was the punter.

Without the punter he reasoned, there would be no horses, no owners, no trainers, no jockeys, no grooms, no stud farms and no racing.

Symanowitz pointed out that it’s the money spent by the punter, extracted to fund the sport via the various rake-offs and taxes, that keeps the show on the road and provides employment for an estimated 100 000 people and entertains millions.

But racing is a high maintenance sport and the costs involved in putting on the show are exorbitant.

So the main priority for the operators, according to Symanowitz, is to pull in more people from outside the current core crop of punters – not owners or racecourse patrons. Providing a myriad of different bet types was not the solution, he reasoned, as all it did was spread the money already in the system thinner and thinner as the rake-offs reduced the amount of money in circulation.

These core punters are the converted, he argued, and would mostly stay loyal but were not immune to neglect. If no longer satisfied with the service they too would slowly dribble away.

But just how difficult a task it will be to attract a new band and brand of punter was brought home to me at Greyville on Friday night.

A high level government delegation was being entertained in the Gold Circle Directors box and I was summoned to dish out dodgy tips and to provide some insight into the sport.

To say it was a trying exercise is an understatement. The people concerned had absolutely no idea about horseracing racing and if possible, even less of an idea on how to place a bet.

It was a most frustrating exercise in that what comes naturally to us regulars was completely foreign to them. With so much information to absorb in one sitting it was not long before their eyes glazed over and one could almost read their minds; “This is far too complicated!”

So if one buys into Symanowitz reasoning one sees the enormous hurdle facing the industry.

The sport may survive on the proceeds of overseas television feeds and the expansion of sports betting but horse racing in this country is slowly being squeezed into a space where any old show will do, put on at minimum cost, for the sake of fulfilling an international obligation to provide a televised betting product.

But if betting and bet types, racecards, gallops and short-heads are difficult for the first-time racegoer to absorb, sorting winners at this time of the year is another dimension to add to the punting conundrum. Some trainers who do not have strings strong enough to compete during Champions Season keep them bottled up until the visitors go home. Others choose this relatively quiet time to give African Horse Sickness vaccinations while others are prepping horses for the Gauteng spring and Cape summer season’s. Is the novice punter privy to this information or do they just fire in the dark.

But this is what makes thoroughbred horseracing the sport it is. Forget Candy Crush and other brainless electronic games where there is nothing at stake other than the re-set button. The reward of making money from a gamble is luring but when one has pondered all the probabilities and it works out, the satisfaction is far greater than winning on the roulette wheel or thinking that you have outwitted a machine programmed to screw you 90% of the time.

Promoting the glitz and glamour is a hoary strategy that has failed – badly. The priority is getting new people to bet on horse racing – the spin-off being that they may be tempted into becoming active participants. So the advice is to round up friends and treat them to an informative day at the races. Something may rub off and you will have contributed in a small way to the wellbeing of one of the finest shows on earth. – Sunday Tribune

howellsracing.co.za/news/

so they had to get an outsider to tell them that the punter is the most important person in racing..hibs is this article an april fools joke?if not mr Harrison what are you and your fellow daily newspaper journalists going to do about it or will you continue to write racing previews like jack milner did yesterday ASUMMING WHY ANT DELPECH WAS UP FOR JOBURG FOR...is it not time that the powers that be MADE SURE THAT THEIR LAZY JOURNALISTS GOT OFF THEIR BACKSIDES AND WERE SEEN AT THE TRAINING CENTRES EVERYDAY instead of just waiting around for their pension packages..tellytrack have their house in order now by calling or interviewing trainers for their shows and its about time the journalists followed suit AS NOT EVERYBODY HAS TIME OR HAS THE MEANS TO ACCESS TELLYTRACK BUT THEY CAN AFFORD A NEWSPAPER .....here is an extract from an interview with karis teetan...............................question whats the press like in hong kong?answer every single morning no matter if its hot or cold raining or storming the press are there looking at the horses trying to get information.you cant believe it no matter WHAT LEVEL OF RACE they do everything they can to help the punter.they don't ask for tips or whether your horse can win they look at how the horse is working

Pirates, you are spot on.
That "glazed look" on new punters faces , as referred to in the article is something that i have often seen......but mainly on the faces of the so called Marketing boys of the Operators.... that look descends upon them whenever you mention that they must spend on Marketing. ...
1)Let's do the Hong Kong thing, lets start with numbers on saddle cloths whenever a horse works. eg Variety Club is number 3758. He will wear that number everyday that he works. Punters and journalists have free access to the NHA website to look up details of horse number 3758. Now for the glazed look....
a) we did not budget for the cost of the number cloths.
b) there are not enough stipes to police/check the system/training centres... If NHA hire more staff we will have to pay.....
Want some more "glazed look" inducers.....? There's plenty more.

.....well said Pirates....only time you see these jokers in the same place as a trainer is for a free lunch/dinner at some or other launch or promo....

a lot of the answers to the problem of turnovers is staring them right in their faces but because it comes from the outside they wont enforce them so you know what continue blaming the open bet and see where that gets you..we don't have to reinvent the wheel the solutions are simple but you need to enforce them and maintain them

Loyal points, loyalty competitions and loyalty challenges - Pick n Pay, MTN, Clicks , Spur and all the Casino's have it.

Punters want it. A dangling carrot. Apart from the quest for a winning bet, punters love challenging each other even if they know that there buddy will beat them again.

Monthly loyalty competitions can happen in many forms. Linked to tote turnover, bets types placed, via your betting card...whatever, whatever. Tote technology must be upgraded and slightly tailored for a national, transparent loyalty program system.

90% of all loyalty prizes/redemption will go back into the betting pool. That's the nature of the punter.

Sure, there will be open debate as to the exact/best format and legality but that pales into insignificance compared to the industry been on its knees.

Existing punters will bet much, much more. Lost punters will flood back !

Nothing in the article that hasn't been said over and over on this forum ........but the greatest challenge for the operators(particularly"P") is getting over their own lack of understanding of the business they like to believe that they are experts at!
They sell exclusively to existing punters and market to existing sponsors!
(Most new sponsors are just another division of companies ,already committed due to shareholding!)
Their greatest "rush" is patting each other on the back as they fail.

Some great comments all around and a well presented article which nails it for what it is, a tough game to market especially when the operator sees only a historical perspective that they are trying to replicate in every single marketing effort.

For the last year I have been working on a new marketing concept for racing that will present a completely new dimension to participation.

It will be entertaining, affordable, easy to understand and will make it competitive and rewarding for every level of player.

It's called Equine X and after a few drafting delays will finally be lodged at the patent office this coming Friday.

Won't be wasting my time with it locally though as 4 years on the road has made me more streetwise this time round.

I've mentioned it on this forum before but it'll bear repeating ... I once went on an information tour at Scottsville lead by a young lady. When I asked a question about horse's shoes she was totally flummoxed at the idea that they wore shoes. Not very informative, that tour. I was one of about a dozen MOPs who went along, all of whom wandered off afterwards no wiser than they came.