Wagering conference a strong exchange of ideas

The first-ever conference dedicated solely to Standardbred wagering got underway in Montreal on Tuesday, in conjunction with the annual Canadian Gaming Summit, and all but a couple of the panelists stuck to the subject of how to “turn the ship” and stop the decline in Standardbred handle, which has decreased by almost 36 percent in the last five years.

Several ideas were discussed in the sessions that lasted five hours. About one hundred people attended the sessions, which were held at the Intercontinental Hotel in downtown Montreal, right across the street from the Palais de Congres, where the Gaming Summit is being held.

In the first session, which carried the subject line “Turning the Ship,” bettor/fan/horse owner Dean Towers frankly spoke of his love of harness racing, but inability to bet on harness races because of the low size of the sport’s betting pools and the lack of sophisticated wagering tools such as software betting products that exist for handicapping Thoroughbred races.

Jamie Martin, senior vice president of racing at Woodbine Entertainment Group (WEG), acknowledged the problem and said WEG has seen a 20 percent decline in Standardbred wagering in the past five years and a 10 percent drop in Thoroughbred wagering. He said WEG officials believe the recent parity of the US and Canadian currencies have also contributed to the percentage drops. “When Americans were betting in the past with a benefit in the exchange,” he noted.

Towers commented on takeout and admonished WEG for not touting its own low takeout rate on Pick 4s. “The Meadowlands advertises itself as having the lowest Pick 4 at 15 percent, but yours is 14.75 percent,” he said. But Martin added that the Meadowlands pools are generally “4 times what ours are.”

Pool size was addressed by Roy Sproxton in a later panel as well. Sproxton says he once bet hundreds of thousands of dollars on harness racing and still makes a “significant amount of income” from gambling.

“My biggest problem is the pool size,” said Sproxton. “I go to the races and I want to win $1,000 for the night. I can’t bet the product; I just can’t bet into these pools.”

While the “Turning the Ship” panel was focused on the size of wagering pools, another mentioned tool to grow handle was the addition of betting outlets. Bernard Forndran, a manager for PMU, France’s off-track distribution system, said that 99.5% of wagering turnover in France is off-track. In a huge national gaming market, the PMU share is 24 percent while the lottery holds about the same and the other 50 percent goes to casinos (the only places, in France, where slots are allowed).

In France, explained Forndran, PMU is very well known. A PMU terminal is an attraction to coffee shop owners, he said, and there are 8,617 of these types of betting outlets in France, all with live simulcasting.

Dave Bryans, a Standardbred horse owner who serves as president of the Canadian Convenience Store Association, suggested Canada’s 33,000 convenience stores as a distribution network for racing, much like the presence of the lottery in convenience stores. “Take your product to the consumer,” he said.

However, when asked if convenience store owners or the association could partner with racing, Bryans replied, “I would have a hell of a time telling a small business, `You put up $1,000 and let’s hope it works.’”

 Also, Chuck Keeling, a racing executive with Great Canadian Gaming, which owns Flamboro Downs, Georgian Downs and Fraser Downs, questioned bothering with distributing racing into convenience stores. “These things are from the 1960s,” he said. “Convince me that this is the new (business) model.”

Magnus Tuononen with Sweden’s ATG International Department, told of his experience with ATG’s highly successful V75 wager, which can be bet at 2,000 distribution outlets in Sweden. It generates a weekly handle of around $13 million and often creates huge payoffs.

Tuononen’s information about the V75 came during a panel titled “Hitting the Homerun.” The panel also provided a forum for Jeremy Pierce, general manager of Harness Racing PEI, to discuss that group’s progress at trying to establish a similar wager.

But before the first day’s meeting was adjourned, two of racing’s old demons were raised by folks who just felt they also deserved mention when discussing the decline in Standardbred wagering: integrity of the horsemen playing the game and the integrity of the pari-mutuel system itself. Several members of the audience complained about the “chemists” in racing, and one, Roy Sproxton, who was on an early panel, said that he believes “late money,” the handle that comes in from simulcast outlets after the race begins and thus changes the odds, discourages wagering.--By Kathy Parker

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