A fundamental baseline of any business is to fully understand what your potential customers want and need. Then, to determine what will resonate with them and make them choose your product or service over anyone else’s.
In retail, stores don’t sell clothing. They sell slimmer hips, a socially more acceptable appearance or a look that makes you feel better about yourself. The sales person who hands over a wrinkled garment and says, “Would you like to buy this $150 piece of cotton, with stiches and pockets, made in India” will not last long in her job. She is failing to demonstrate how this item will make you look better, run faster or feel more confident about yourself.
In gambling, the same holds true. Those who promote lottery tickets sell the dream of beach houses, fast cars and never working again. Those who promote poker, sell the concept of being able to actually make money doing what you love, and perhaps one day become a famous TV poker star. Those who promote casinos sell the feeling of being treated like you’re someone special and important. The more you buy, the larger and more pampered you’ll feel.
What are those who are charged with harness racing really selling? Before answering that, I will caution you not to say: “Gambling,” “Entertainment,” “The horse,” or “The drivers.” Yes, those are all features of what we offer, and yes we can focus more or less attention on any of them. But, we must understand why. Features don’t solve problems or make you feel better about yourself or your life.
I have a favourite pen. I like it because of how it writes for me, never quits on me, and how it feels in my hand. I’m much less concerned about what type of ink it uses or its metal construction than I am about what it does for me. And because of that, I may be loyal to the brand for decades, regardless of things like price and ease of purchase.
If, like poker, harness racing wants to give its customers the impression of being able to make money and be famous, then it is failing with high takeout rates, fluctuating odds, small pools and little prestige to being a player. If harness racing wants to offer the dream of the fantasy life, then it needs to produce and promote that opportunity. And if it wants to make customers feel special and pampered, then it must deliver on that promise.
For the most part, harness racing hasn’t resonated with its customers because it hasn’t decided how it wants them to feel. In smaller, rural tracks, the success the sport has is as a community hub – a place where people can feel like they belong, seeing and playing the horses with old friends. In teletheatres, the dynamic is often the same – where these locations provide companionship and distraction from other more serious parts of life. To an aging demographic, harness racing makes them feel good and important. But, in order to reach the rest of the world, the focus must shift to resonate meaningfully with others as well.
If you want me to feel alive, and energized, give me two hours of non-stop, high energy entertainment. I’ll be loyal to you. If you want me to be inspired by the beauty and power of the horse, deliver me a hands-on racetrack experience that takes me into the paddock, behind the horse and into the winner’s circle with a bushel of carrots. I’ll be loyal to you. If you want me to dream of quitting my job to play the horses for a living, then change the way betting is done, offer me low takeout, fixed odds betting, exchange wagering and life altering jackpots. I’ll be loyal to you.
It is a new day, and we require new thinking and new energy. As any good horsemen will tell you, getting the most out of a horse is sometimes as much about psychology as it is about ability. The same goes for filling grandstands.
Darryl Kaplan
[email protected]
1) Looking towards our
1) Looking towards our future, we have to find a way to be sustainable. In order to be sustainable, we have to grow our handle. If we are to grow our handle, we need to focus on the bettor.
We are no longer the only game in town and we must find a way to make betting more desirable. Seems like the above posters have some very valid points in that regard.
And I agree, fans will follow when we have big winners(bettors)to showcase to the media. Getting into newspapers with big handicapping contests will generate interest in the sport as a whole.
2) Image is everything.
Following the news in the past year, I think most of us have a pretty good picture of what the general public thinks of our sport.
Dante is absolutely correct, we have to get tough on whipping and doping.
While many will argue doping is everywhere in sports, human athletes make the choice to dope to gain an edge - horses do not have that choice. We are the guardians of our horse's welfare and its up to our Industry to say NO on behalf of the animal.
Darryl, I
Darryl,
I thank you from the bottom of my heart for writing this piece. It gets discouraging after awhile to see just how few people within the industry actually get it when it comes to the gamblers and just what the high takeouts have done to the industry in today's competitive marketplace. Outside of Jeff Gural and the racing and development sustainability plan put forth by standardbred canada and Anthony in his blogs, i have not seen anybody else step up and call for lower takeouts or fixed odds. Back when i used to play i would see a horse at 8 to 1 morning line and know it was going to go away at 2 to 1 and i would just say to myself i would be tripping over my feet getting to the windows if i could lock in on that horse at 8 to 1.
You are 100% correct, in both poker and sports betting people feel they can win. I myself know personally 6 people who play poker for a living. They do not work period. They pay all there bills including mortgage or rent from poker winnings. I have been around the track all my life except for the last 4 or 5 years and i do not know a single long term winner at the races. To quit work and play the races for a living is just a pipe dream with the take out rates charged today. Back when i played i was a reasonably good handicapper. I had a few years where i made a few dollars or broke even or lost a few dollars but at the end of the day i knew beating it at any level was next to impossible, as Ken Middleton would say i was just spinning my wheels:)and eventually i got fed up and quit and moved on to other low vig forms of gambling.
Now if the track take out was reduced to 10% or less i would have been a fairly substantial winner. Several of my friends who are now playing poker would also have been winners and they would be playing the races now, not poker if this would only sink in to the powers that be. Anyone who plays the ponies now who loses 10% of there money at today's takeout rate is an automatic winner if the takeout rate was cut to 10%. I am not sure what it will take for the industry as a whole to understand to build and retain their customer base at their current take out rates is impossible. As you say it is a new day and the old way of doing business is gone forever. They either change or they disappear it is as simple as that.
To sum it all up, I want to feel like I can beat the races, be a long term winner but it is impossible to feel that way with today's pricing.
...and on it goes...the
...and on it goes...the hamster runs and spins the wheel around and around...
Everything Kaplan says in this article is a truism, but there are many in this industry that don't see it, and will never see it. You have to give people an inkling of an idea that this is not just an insider's game, but that you have a reasonable chance to make a profit by betting the races.
1.Lower takeouts...
Of course many (perhaps even most) of people in grandstands don't know how much the takeout is, but even without them knowing it, smaller takeouts will give them better returns and more money to reinvest. This has been proven umpteen times, and yet managements still ignore the fact. Tracks will be rewarded with a much better handle and eventually more profit.
2.Showcase professional players and big one-time winners...
Forget about drivers, trainers, horses...those will take care of themselves. When you go behind the scenes and showcase knowledgeable players sharing their experience, much like poker has done, it is a game changer. They know who the great drivers, trainers and horses are.
3.Reward loyal patrons...
Well duh?
4.Give a closer and more personal experience...
I don't know of a single person that I have introduced to a horse who has not at least been impressed or has been touched by the animal. Harness racing has to protect the animals and prove to the masses that these horses love their jobs and don't need to be beaten or chemically abused to do it. No more whipping horses ever, anywhere. Drug abusers and physical abusers of horses should be dealt with severely and immediately.
As owners, trainers and
As owners, trainers and grooms, participants in the horse racing industry already know and admire the courage, grace and beauty of the horse. We know the joy of jogging a standardbred on a beautiful sunny summer morning, the quiet and tranquility of a cool, foggy fall morning, the invigorating cold of a winter afternoon and the freshness of a newly green Spring day. We crave the exhilarating speed of training and race days as much as life itself. Nothing compares to the feeling of achievement with a win and satisfaction of a race well run.
These are the feelings industry participants do not seem able to communicate to potential fans. Creating more interaction with fans to bring them closer to the horses and participants seems like a good start to building a better fan base.