Sandpiper

First time logging in for months. When youre arguing with people for choosing to leave your site, it probably time to take a look.

I agree wholeheartedly. Whether you love or hate the current bunch, watching sport requires colour commentary. What is this nonsense about only one camera on course???!! Look at how other sports are trending with camera coverage. This is a death knell to viewership. It all smacks of look-after-your-mates-in-the-office at the expense of folks out in the field less able to defend themselves from the poison memos and decisions.

Do RITA include online casinos in their figures? Pokies in the cloud are a big thing

Of course racing gets shyte all from that. Why would it. Someone sold fast horses/horses that might produce fast horses. You don't need a NZ racing industry to breed fast horses. Fortunately the government sees a co-existance if not a synergy and noted that when handing over a bailout. The "few hundred million" is imo a lowball guess of what kiwis might lose to overseas providers betting sports and casinos online over a few years.

I liked the bigger picture talk re racing needing to survive to maintain export earners and jobs. I liked the even bigger picture talk about regulating offshore gambling. Its a devil of a bargain to make against personal liberties, but a few hundred million gaming income from kiwis which can finance various sports including racing and central administration would be transformational. I liked the dunces hat being put on racing administration. Not much reading between the lines needed when half a 50 million dollar bailout goes to pay one overdue supplier bill.

Hard task to measure profitability of bonus bets promo imo. Some winning bonus bets would be withdrawn, sure. But some of those punters will soon deposit again. And perhaps their turnover will be higher for some time thanks to that win. How many additional bets were taken because punters were engaged by the promo? Or shared the promo with friends who created new accounts? How often did punters stick around instead of betting with overseas providers? Did your average 5k p.a. losing punter still find a way to churn their balance to lose the same amount despite getting a few bonus bumps along the way? TAB may have cocked up the accounting but that doesnt mean its a dumb promo. Especially if what they've done is double pay some winners as has been suggested, that could have happened in many other ways too. And the hint at coding faults could indicate a pending claim to be offset against the horrendous website service fees.

Covid will be helping the board wash their hands for years to come

Not going to attract the younger crowd when Guerins smiles and winks will give anyone under 21 nightmares.

Highest prizemoney for maidens, $10k group 1s ☺️

Yes a total waste of funds. Let's reduce all the stakes until all the meetings are 'profitable' by this measure.

Converting a race from handicap to SW&P is designed to retain its status by encouraging higher rated horses to enter, since they are better off at the weights. Can't remember the exact source for that, some article about the Telegraph a couple of years ago. While it can be seen as helping breeders, clubs and anyone else with an interest in races not being downgraded also benefit. Don't see any conspiracy. The format is ok I dislike how it has changed the history of races though and left gaps in the calendar. How many handicaps are there left worth over $50k now up to a mile? Hardly any.

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Just race wild pigs instead. Ill still have a bet

Ah of course thanks Mardi. I made the leap that the author was only using sectional data from previous starts when that wasnt the case. As in "horses projected to be < 3 lengths from the lead'. Amazing that the ROI was so minimal frankly.

What's wrong with the data? Would want to guard against cherry-picking the 3 lengths figure by establishing more of a trend. Seems reasonable on the face of it though. Disclaimer: I have found similar data in NZ using running style profiles rather than sectionals so I'm biased.