The Woodbine Entertainment Group today issued a release stating that it will be lowering the takeout rate on the triactor pools during Woodbine Racetrack's upcoming live thoroughbred meet. In addition, Trot Insider has
spoken with WEG's executive vice president of Racing, Jamie Martin, in regard to the organization's recently-announced early Pick 4 pool guarantee for its live Saturday cards in the month of April.
Woodbine Racetrack's thoroughbred meet will get underway this coming weekend on Saturday, April 2.
The WEG announcement in regard to its reduced takeout rate on its live thoroughbred triactor pools appears below, followed by Martin's comments on the standardbred initiative.
Horseplayers will be pleased to hear that Woodbine Entertainment Group (WEG) will be reducing the takeout on its triactor wager by 2 per cent for the upcoming live thoroughbred meet, which kicks off this Saturday, April 2.
The 'tri,' a bet in which fans are asked to pick the top three finishers in a race, is one of the more popular wagers at the track. It will now feature a takeout, which is the amount of money kept by the track before the winning bettors are paid off, of 25 per cent.
The takeout reduction is the second in less than two years. The rate was at 28.3 per cent, before a cut in 2009 dropped the mark to 27 per cent.
The 25 per cent takeout includes 5.3 per cent in provincial and federal taxes and levies.
"We understand how important takeout is to the horseplayer," said Sean Pinsonneault, WEG's executive vice-president and chief operating officer. "We believe this additional reduction in the triactor takeout on our live thoroughbred racing will bring even greater value to our customers and allow us to be even more competitive in the betting marketplace."
Woodbine already offers a low Win-Place-Show takeout, 16.95 per cent, and boasts some of the fullest and most competitive fields in the sport.
"We are taking a different approach, initially, to grow our live standardbred pools," Martin said, in regard to WEG's standardbred early Pick 4 initiative. "The early Pick 4 is easily our largest pool, and as previously announced we are guaranteeing a significantly larger pool on Saturday nights in April. At $100,000 this Saturday, and $75,000 for the remaining four Saturdays in April, we believe injecting monies into this pool will attract horseplayers not currently wagering into our pools, with Meadowlands dark for the month. WEG is averaging $50,000 for the Saturday early Pick 4 in 2011.
"Customers attracted to a particular pool tend to play other pools on the card, and we believe this strategy will result in continued growth in WEG standardbred handle. We'll evaluate the results later in April and determine strategies going forward."
Can you imagine lowering the
Can you imagine lowering the takeout to 25% on triactors and then patting yourself on the back about it. With reductions like this i have one suggestion for horseplayers and that is keep your wallet in your pocket or go play another form of gambling that has a reasonable takeout where you have a shot with your money. Great to see that weg is listening to all of us that are calling for a fair game with a reasonable house take. Somehow i don't think 25% in this day and age cuts it. Hopefully i didn't waste my time typing this and it gets posted as my comments are fair.
I thought "injecting monies
I thought "injecting monies into this pool" and guaranteeing a significantly larger pool are two different things. My understanding of the Weg pick fours is that they will inject money if their is not 100000 bet into the pick four pool. I am pleasantly suprised because this is the first sign that those who can make a difference are willing to lower the price of their product too see if more players will show up. Unfortunately the takeout is being lowered on the Thoroughbreds and will only feed into the argument that has been used against standardbred horsemen for reductions in dates. So when the wager on thoroughbreds is up by 10 percent relevent to standardbred wagering this year save us the press release on why thoroughbreds are what the customer wants.