Toronto Takeout Pitch Worth Talking About

April 20th 2008

 1 comment
Good Sunday to you. Great racing this weekend, which we can talk about later in the weekend. Today, one week before the important Gaming Conference in Montreal, I want to link to Dean Towers' "Pull the Pocket" blog.
 
Towers makes the case that Ontario tracks out to immediately reduce their takeout by 7 percent, a figure that corresponds to the reduction in provincial taxes the tracks have received since 1996. Here is Towers' pitch: 
 
"When we listen to Woodbine or other track and horseman execs they often complain that Pinnacle is "stealing" their customers because they offer a 5% rebate. Well, you guys have a 7% rebate that you can give us now that would crush the offshores you complain about.

The argument that they can't afford it simply does not hold water. They got this 7% added in 1996, so they were operating without it for many years. You can't say you can not afford to give something back that you never had in the first place. Not to mention, over $2B has been added to this business through slots, so we can not cry poor."
 
Andrew here again. My question for First Over is this. If you could ask any of the Montreal panelists three questions about the future of wagering on harness racing what would they be and why? We'll keep a list and make sure to send them to Standardbred Canada in time for the Conference.   

Comments

Pull the Pocket said...

First off, best luck with the Blog Andrew. I thoroughly enjoy reading your stuff.

Thanks for the link. I am on two panels at the Conference and am looking forward to it. The conference calls so far have been very customer-centric. This is appealing to me. I feel we have done a very poor job listening to our bettors and fans. Perhaps operating in a perfectly competitive market while doing so for so long is the reason - I do not know. But I think there is a real push from conference organizers to let the fan and bettor be heard. There are bettors, fans, industry watchers, professional bettors and more on each session.

If anyone has any questions on changing the game for the better in terms of pricing, new bets, regulations in betting and topics like that, please comment and I will be happy to bring them up for you at the conference. The organizers have been looking for feedback from where ever they can get it.

Best luck Andrew,

Dean

posted at 11:02 AM on Apr 23rd 2008

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