Just six shows in, Woodbine Entertainment Group's Bet Night Live network television show on The Score is paying off with both increased viewership and increased subscriptions to its online wagering portal
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That news comes from Andrew MacDonald, WEG's Vice-President, Marketing & Communications, who updated Trot Insider on the show's progress to date.
MacDonald states that last Monday's show had an audience of over 60,000 which is about three times the average audience of its harness racing-themed predecessor, Race Night on The Score.
"It's still early, but the numbers support that the change in format is attracting new viewers and new betting accounts," MacDonald told Trot Insider. "Although we're extremely pleased with the numbers thus far we will continue to improve the show in any way we can."
An even greater increase comes in the statistics for WEG's wagering site, horseplayerinteractive.com, which is boasting on average four times more sign-ups related to the show than it did in 2009.
MacDonald continued to explain that their have been over 500 new account signups since the network programming relaunch and that these new accounts had wagered more than $100,000 so far.
"That's new handle on our product coming from the new HPI subscribers, handle that wasn't there before."
Despite some negative reviews from industry participants, MacDonald understands that the show isn't everyone's cup of tea.
"We know we're not going to please everyone," stated MacDonald, "but the show is targeted for newer people and the numbers show it's doing well to attract those people and get them involved. People who are looking for more focused coverage have other options; they can watch the free online stream or one of the pay-per-view channels.
"I won't go so far as to say the new show is a flat-out success. It's too early to make any claims like that. But one thing racing hasn't done a great job of is bringing new customers in, and at this point the numbers do show some success there."
Norm, I'd have to say that
Norm, I'd have to say that the 100k is actually generated from the 12k being wagered time and time again.
Just curious, of the 500 new
Just curious, of the 500 new account where a total of $12,000 that was given away to play the contest how much of that $100,000 is actually new money generated into the pools and how much money has just been rolled over from the original $24 given to each new subscriber?
I think that this is great
I think that this is great news. They admit that the show might not be great for industry participants, but if 40,000 extra viewers are tuning in, that's exactly what we need...new blood.
Well done !