Andrew Beyer, the highly respected horse racing writer for The Washington Post, yesterday penned a column chastising track officials in Maryland for having recently requested the ability to raise takeout while the North American economy is taking a pounding
.
The racing commission in Maryland apparently didn't even debate the request. The raised takeout will come into effect March 1.
The pools affected? Pick Threes and Pick Fours at the Laurel and Pimlico racetracks for thoroughbreds. And we're not taking about a slight bump here; the increased takeout from the aforementioned pools will jump from 14 per cent to 25.75 per cent.
Beyer begins his piece by offering a transcript of a mock discussion at a major corporation. Given the very true scenario of the raise in takeout, sadly, maybe the discussion isn't that far off.
WASHINGTON - Imagine the following discussion in the executive suite of a modern-day corporation.
Executive 1: "The economy is killing us. Customers are deserting us. Our business is terrible. What are we going to do?"
Executive 2: "I've got an idea. Let's raise our prices!"
Executive 1: "Raise prices! Brilliant!"
Later in the piece, Beyer references the successful racing industries in the Far East, which do not set a high takeout rate on pools. He then contrasts that successful model by highlighting a horse-rich country with a sputtering racing industry. Coincidentally, the latter sets very high takeout rates.
"Whenever I visit tracks in other countries, I observe the relationship between the takeout and the health of the sport," Beyer writes. "Gambling-mad Hong Kong and Australia produce per-capita wagering that dwarfs the United States. Their takeout rates are around 16 per cent to 17 per cent, and in both places I met pros who bet astronomical sums and make a lucrative livelihood beating the game by a couple of percentage points.
"By contrast, when I visited Argentina last spring, I did not hear of a professional horseplayer in a country with a rich horse tradition. The takeout rate of 28 per cent made serious betting impossible. Somewhere between 17 per cent and 28 per cent is a crucial tipping point."
(With files from The Washington Post)
Imagine sitting at a poker
Imagine sitting at a poker table where the house took 20% of every pot. All of the players would be in the poor house before most of them had finished their 1st beer. There would be no winners... the math does not allow for it. That in a nut shell is the world that today's race players live in. The game needs winners to be attractive, draw new fans and win back some old ones. Nobody would play poker if winning wasn't possible. Nobody would invest in the stock market if turning a profit was not a distinct possibility. Nobody has spent more time handicapping harness races than I have. It has been my reason to get out of bed for 32 years and after all of that time, sacrifice, energy and focus I struggle to turn a profit over the long run. You have to produce 20% better numbers than the average player just to break even. We must lower takeouts and make winning viable. People would become interested, a new generation of players would evolve and the entire industry would benefit. A 15% takeout of a 2 million dollar handle is a much better result than a 20% takeout of a million dollar handle. Trust me... its simple math.
What does Mr. Beyer know
What does Mr. Beyer know about this... He's only the world's most pre-eminent handicapper!!
We can debate all we want about race dates, whips, regulations, enforcement, judging fiascoes, etc. but before our industry goes the way of a Canadian Chevrolet plant we need to address the price points for our customers.
Why not try an experiment of a few months duration with significantly lower takeouts on a couple of bets (and promote this!) to see if we can regain some marketshare.