Brodie

Gamma, we admire your support for HRNZ and the high class harness horses! However, for NZ there is absolutely no reason for confidence in harness racing in the future! You will realise in the future that those that are prepared to speak up about the blatant mismanagement of harness racing in NZ are speaking up for the best interests for longevity of the industry! The Entain money has been blatantly mishandled and you and everyone else will see that once it is stopped! The total silence from HRNZ and Entain is surely showing that they know we are right or they would be defending their position and guaranteeing that things are going in the right direction???? How on earth can things be going well when the North Island clubs are broke and getting poorer by the day?

Betcha started out as if they were going to be more user friendly than the standard TAB site! However they dont now appear to be heading in the right direction in several respects! When you receive advice from them that they no longer are going to offer any promotions to you just because you arent a losing punter then that is less than average. Yes they are there to make money for the industry I appreciate that, however when their advice to you is not correct, you can tell that they are not travelling well!!!!!!

Lol Betcha have been offering it to anyone recently and heard the TAB is doing the same to some at the mo. Just make sure that you lose or they will not offer you any bonuses or promotions in the future!

How did they go tonight? Saw some of it but they are very quiet when they arent going that well! I did hear that they were given $1k bonus cash to spend from BETCHA!! It is Very UNFAIR that BETCHA Continues to give this BONUS CASH of $1k each and every week and are allowed to wager what they want without a single restriction! Here is the thing though, BETCHA make these offers to punters matching a deposit to your BETCHA account up to $200! Thats great you say and fair enough, HOWEVER IF YOU WIN, they will pull the plug on any future promotions, as it is not in BETCHA’s rulebook that you should be able to win when they have given you free money!!!! And yet OUT THE GATE continue to get BONUS CASH of at least $1k free every week?????? BETCHA trying to get people to wager by enticing you to deposit to your account, however be aware you are not allowed to be winning or they take their bat and ball home and promise no more promotions for you! Betcha you are a gambling agency and to my mind you need to tske the good with the bad, but no you just want losing punters!

Reality is that the TAB Bookies are clearly under instructions from bosses to not let serious punters on for anything other than small amounts! Was speaking to a serious punter the other day and he couldn’t really believe how little he was allowed to wager on his own horse. Welcome to the world of the NZ TAB fixed odds betting, started out ok with Entain but has seriously deteriorated to the point where only the smaller punters, losing punters are welcomed as well as the off your face Thursday night presenters. Anyway make the most of the next couple of years of Entain contributions cos after that, like it or not it ain’t going to be flash . Brodie unfortunately on the money unless someone can come on and tell us that Brodie is wrong?

Fair enough Chief! But the profit share is 50% of net! Not totally sure but lets say the profit is $120m which I think I remember was what it was a year or so ago? So Entain is going to not be putting all of their $60m into stakes and so the amount available for stakes is going to be half of what the stake money currently is at very best?? I believe that the racing hierarchy here, really don’t understand just how badly affected they are going to be when the Entain money guaranteed is stopped!!! There is no way on earth that things can be anywhere as good as it currently is and I believe that it will be catastrophic but lets just stay positive for the next couple of years. Head in the sand mentality at the moment will not have a positive outcome, never will!

What was the guarantee from Entain as to what they were going to be putting into racing stakes at the end of the 5 years? Probably no guarantee and therefore racing stakes are going to plummet if they are going to be relying on the NZ TAB share! Entain never bought 50% of the NZ TAB so that they could help out NZ racing. They bought in for the Sports and online gambling as that is where they see the big profits and not racing! Unless someone knows differently then harness racing is going to be in dire straights as there would be very few meetings now where they make $! Surely would be beneficial if the CEO of Entain or CEO of HRNZ could actually come out and explain what the go is in 2 years time!!!

Dont for one minute believe that it was a technical error! What sort of technical error? Made by themselves? If it was then surely it shouldve been rectified by now, as they had it up and then they taketh away! Not sure why HRNZ would do this, as it surely is in their best interests to have increased turnover on harness, but doesnt appear to be so?

Jason, na I wouldnt have the patience and discipline that training harness requires! I do have total respect for what trainers do and for the financial returns! it is disappointing what is going to happen!

Lol, how did they go? Bet they were nil on the horses and were allowed to feed as much as they wanted into the dogs with same race multi this, same race multi that ? What did they start with and finish with? If any single person wagered the way these OTG blokes do, theY would be betting irresponsibly and were compulsive gambler’s! And yet certain punters they make it hard and are treated poorly whereas the OTG are given major preferential treatment!

Jason, dont agree that harness racing is an awful industry? Yes it has certainly fallen from grace compared to the hay days when courses were full and it was semi affordable for many! There certainly has been some shocking business decisions made over the past decade or so and I believe that HRNZ stopped promoting the harness racing industry. Things are competitive in everything nowadays but personally believe that things are going to become very dire for harness racing industry 2 years or so due to very poor financial handling of things. The frustrating thing is that those making the decisions at the moment are not looking at the overall picture of what they are doing to the harness racing future. They have lost the plot and when things are shown up for what they actually are there will be heads to roll!

Why stop at the handicapping department? Unfortunately when the industry needs people with a background with business success, we sadly haven’t got it! I believe that what should’ve been an opportunity to keep the harness industry going has been badly managed! the reality is that those that still think that Entain is the White Knight for racing in NZ are going to be sadly disappointed, but then again the opportunity for anyone to dispute this are most welcome to respond here?

Needs to go back to number if wins current system just not fair when 15 win horses race maiden winners

Chucking money into something that is going to lose money to my mind , is not a winner! Cambridge chucked money into the slot race when they can not afford it, in fact they are broke and no way on earth will they trade out of it! Gamma, you need to realise that the only reason harness is functioning at the moment is due to the money that Entain has Chucked in and it isnt going to continue indefinitely. Totally agree harness racing is very poorly promoted in NZ, HRNZ would rather boost the stakes now and have nothing to show at the end of the 5 years? it is very puzzling how someone who is not on the HRNZ payroll is the biggest promoter of harness racing in NZ?.?? They just do not get it but then again while they are getting big salaries then what is the problem?

We get very little media from out of HRNZ apart from every now and then we get the CEO interviewed and telling us how positive things are! Within 2 years there is going to be a lot of media reports but for the wrong reasons! If we are wrong then why is the CEO not coming out and denying that things are dire?