It has been announced that a North American racetrack will be rolling out a new wager this upcoming holiday season.
Officials with Thoroughbred raceway Santa Anita Park have announced that the track will be offering its ‘Horse Racing Roulette’ wager when the California oval starts its upcoming meet on Boxing Day (Dec. 26).
According to Santa Anita, Horse Racing Roulette will debut as a win-only wager. The wager will be available in all 10 of the track’s opening-day races that have fields of six or more horses.
The wager – which will include horses marked in the track’s racing program as red, black or green – will consist of a stand-alone Win pool and payoffs will be made according to the ‘colour’ of the winner and standard pari-mutuel calculations.
Basic components and rules comprising Santa Anita’s Horse Racing Roulette wager appear below.
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Two-dollar minimum win wager with a 15.43 per cent takeout
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Horses (minimum six-horse field) will be placed into one of three groups, ‘Red’, ‘Black’ or ‘Green’
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In most cases, the morning line favourite will be part of the Red group
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The Green group will be comprised mainly of longshots
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The three groups, in most cases, will not have an equal number of horses
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Whichever group contains the race winner, wins that ‘game’ of Horse Racing Roulette
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In the event that ALL betting interest members of any group are scratched or declared non-starters, betting on the group-bet pool will be stopped immediately and all roulette wagers made on the particular race will be refunded.
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In the event of a dead heat for first between two or more divergent group members, the group-bet pool will be distributed as a profit split (place pool) or, if there is a triple dead heat with as many group interests, the pool will also be distributed as a profit split (show pool).
(With files from Santa Anita Park)
Mike and Will you are both
Mike and Will you are both absolutely correct. The wager won't entice regular bettors to the make these bets, as they will go for the win pool or exotic. With new bettors, and Will's comments, it is true it is designed to try entice new bettors but in the end they will see exactly as Mike said the 15% is too high, as they will relate it to the casino. This is even compounded as they already stated the favorite will be with the one color and longshots in another. It will be a dumb pool as the favorite color will pay $2.10 and the longshots get a higher return but not enough as the bettors won't be willing to risk money to win $0.05 in the dollar when they can risk a lot less placing a win ticket at higher odds, or buy the show on the super favorite and bet 20 grand etc like they sometimes do trying to win that nickel as the favorite only has to be in top 3 to make same return rate.
If this gimmic had a chance it should at least have pills in a bottle and random color draws as they can still put in 3 of each color etc in a 9 horse field and potentially make a pink color for the lone entry or something like that. Better yet (make it more like casino betting and craps) take 2% rake and have 1 pill pink or something that is the house pill, and all random drawing at draw. That way the house has a chance to win big if the pink horse wins and fans get a 2% takeout on other bets. That may get casino fans interested.
In the end, the lower rake and/or more sponsorship is what the industry needs. New gamblers are going to the fancy lights and allure of the casino. The free food and such can't be overlooked either as that is the kind of things that get younger interest. Gimmics like the one above with 2% rake and a house horse have a better chance of succeeding. I am not talking about succeeding with the racing purist, as they would think of that idea as dumb. The new gambler or new blood would probably like that. Many of the bettors would over time too if they saw positive returns come from the lower rake. In the end, you can consider it like a win wager and if your horse didn't win, why the hell would you care if the house received the money. You still lose, but you will remember the times you win and think well that was easy money, or I got lucky and won as: my pick didn't win but at least my color came in.
Imagine this 2% rake in a race with a rank favorite compared to the same win wager with 15-18% takeout, the win pool wager is $2.10 or $2.20 but the color wager could potentially be $2.30 or $2.40 That would make a lot of bettors happy quickly.
Seems too gimmicy the way it is, but but anything is worth a try to get new blood at the races.
The point here isnt to lure
The point here isnt to lure new fans..... the point is new fans have enough issues trying to pick winners, this is a bet that helps the inexperienced bettors.
Why are purists so resistant to change?
Sorry, but I don't see any
Sorry, but I don't see any reason why this bet will lure anyone from the casinos to the track. The 15.43% takeout is nearly triple the 5.3% takeout in casino roulette. If you're already a horseplayer, Fraser Downs/Elements Casino offers an even lower 15% takeout on all WPS and Win4 bets. Bet enough money in a casino and they'll comp you with a free dinner and show. No matter how much money you wager at Santa Anita, a hot dog will still run you $5 and a beer will set you back an additional $7. I predict that Santa Anita will discontinue this wager by the end of 2019.