if only nz racing had initiatives

[wally]

what a great idea        http://www.racingnsw.com.au/wp-content/uploads/Media-Release-Kosciuszko.pdf

[Freda]

Bloody fantastic.

[barryb]

Here's exactly what NZ racing should be doing.

1) Aggressively target the  mid week and weekend Corporate entertainment market.

Businesses are constantly looking for client events to take customers too, Rugby is often targeted but its expensive and more often than not means a reduced number attend to save cost.  There is a real shortage of things to take corporate customers too esp in winter. For a similar cost you can take along double the number to a midweek racing event. Its significantly better than Rugby as it lasts longer & easier to get around all your customers that are invited. Offer them for repeat bookings in the future, Betting vouchers/Drinks whatever. Many marketing/hosting organisers have no idea racing is even on, pound them with emails/letters etc. Figure out who key influencer's are who take plenty to hosting events and offer them some incentive to encourage other businesses to do similar. I have recently been involved in a few racing event planning and the difficulty in finding info/whom to contact/etc & then the written material supplied is abysmal.

2) Review the club structure.

Responsibility for terrible food choices on race day rests here, we need to move this into the 21st century. Clubs that I have been to in the last 12 months that are sub-standard are, Rotorua, Te Aroha, Te Awamutu, Wanganui, Hastings, Hawera. In the ok category is  Tauherenikau, Matamata, Taupo, New Plymouth, Whakatane, Tauranga, Trentham, In the superior category: Riccarton, Timaru, Te Rapa, Ellerslie, Awapuni, Woodville. If little old Woodville can have decent coffee, food that's eatable & looks fresh and safe to eat then its clearly not that hard a thing to achieve. If you want to move corporate hosting forward then this is one place to start.

3) Clubs board members to show some interest.

I have lost count of how many board members wander around meetings thinking their shit doesn't stink and wouldn't lower themselves to talk to race goers or introduce themselves to sponsors or business hosts, there are few other businesses that would let the best marketing opportunity evade them. Too many of these people think racing exists for them when the opposite is true. Its a huge turnoff to be a sponsor and have your 2 mins of fame after your race to then to be completely ignored after, along with prior, no wonder its a scratch around to find sponsors.

4) Innovation.

Think of innovative ways to get the names of many race goers/corporate attendees etc, fire them out an email/text thanking them for coming and looking forward to seeing them again in the future. Ask them if they have a TAB account, qualifies them for a 100% matched deposit up to $100 say. 

5) Information.

On Track and in TAB's, where is the information about how to get involved, approx costs, how little a 5% share in a horse costs, the fun that can be had, etc. 

Just a few thoughts on a boring Sunday with no NZ gallops, why the fark is gallops not on every Sunday staggers me.

Edited July 29, 2018 by barryb

[FeelTheFear]

Makes too much sense. Would also cut into board members trough mentality if they had to do some mingling and promoting. What are membership initiatives like? Too many bored members? (see what I did there?)

[Poisoned Dwarf]

Sunset industry, never going to get popular again, too many better things to do and so much cheaper

[hesi]

24 minutes ago, barryb said:

Here's exactly what NZ racing should be doing.

1) Aggressively target the  mid week and weekend Corporate entertainment market.

Businesses are constantly looking for client events to take customers too, Rugby is often targeted but its expensive and more often than not means a reduced number attend to save cost.  There is a real shortage of things to take corporate customers too esp in winter. For a similar cost you can take along double the number to a midweek racing event. Its significantly better than Rugby as it lasts longer & easier to get around all your customers that are invited. Offer them for repeat bookings in the future, Betting vouchers/Drinks whatever. Many marketing/hosting organisers have no idea racing is even on, pound them with emails/letters etc. Figure out who key influencer's are who take plenty to hosting events and offer them some incentive to encourage other businesses to do similar. I have recently been involved in a few racing event planning and the difficulty in finding info/whom to contact/etc & then the written material supplied is abysmal.

2) Review the club structure.

Responsibility for terrible food choices on race day rests here, we need to move this into the 21st century. Clubs that I have been to in the last 12 months that are sub-standard are, Rotorua, Te Aroha, Te Awamutu, Wanganui, Hastings, Hawera. In the ok category is  Tauherenikau, Matamata, Taupo, New Plymouth, Whakatane, Tauranga, Trentham, In the superior category: Riccarton, Timaru, Te Rapa, Ellerslie, Awapuni, Woodville. If little old Woodville can have decent coffee, food that's eatable & looks fresh and safe to eat then its clearly not that hard a thing to achieve. If you want to move corporate hosting forward then this is one place to start.

3) Clubs board members to show some interest.

I have lost count of how many board members wander around meetings thinking their shit doesn't stink and wouldn't lower themselves to talk to race goers or introduce themselves to sponsors or business hosts, there are few other businesses that would let the best marketing opportunity evade them. Too many of these people think racing exists for them when the opposite is true. Its a huge turnoff to be a sponsor and have your 2 mins of fame after your race to then to be completely ignored after, along with prior, no wonder its a scratch around to find sponsors.

4) Innovation.

Think of innovative ways to get the names of many race goers/corporate attendees etc, fire them out an email/text thanking them for coming and looking forward to seeing them again in the future. Ask them if they have a TAB account, qualifies them for a 100% matched deposit up to $100 say. 

5) Information.

On Track and in TAB's, where is the information about how to get involved, approx costs, how little a 5% share in a horse costs, the fun that can be had, etc. 

Just a few thoughts on a boring Sunday with no NZ gallops, why the fark is gallops not on every Sunday staggers me.

Some good ideas there Barry

The expectation is though, that the national body(NZTR) handles mainstream marketing and promotion, but they have a limited marketing resource or budget, so it is left to the disjointed, incohesive approach of individual clubs.

Xmas at the Races is a great promotion, but I think it is only promoted to the industry, nothing mainstream

 

 

[mumbles]

32 minutes ago, Poisoned Dwarf said:

Sunset industry, never going to get popular again, too many better things to do and so much cheaper

Some of this popularity problem can be attributed to the end of the 5 day week and the intrusion of school sports on a Saturday eg

Most 1st 15  games start at 11 am.Game ends 1230 arrive home 14oo hrs.Saturday gone.

I believe all school sports should be played during school hours or after school midweek.

Generations of kids are missing out on attending race meetings.

Just a thought.

[jess]

BarryB - I think you had more good ideas there than I've heard from anywhere "official" inteh last 12mo ... J.

[Poisoned Dwarf]

20 hours ago, mumbles said:

Some of this popularity problem can be attributed to the end of the 5 day week and the intrusion of school sports on a Saturday eg

Most 1st 15  games start at 11 am.Game ends 1230 arrive home 14oo hrs.Saturday gone.

I believe all school sports should be played during school hours or after school midweek.

Generations of kids are missing out on attending race meetings.

Just a thought.

awful thought, all those poor kids not learning about betting and drinking

[VC!]

2 hours ago, mumbles said:

 

Most 1st 15  games start at 11 am.

Well the first 13 game is about to start and the support for the Warriors here on the Coast is unbelievable we out number the Titans supporters by at least 3 to 1

[curious]

3 hours ago, hesi said:

Some good ideas there Barry

The expectation is though, that the national body(NZTR) handles mainstream marketing and promotion, but they have a limited marketing resource or budget, so it is left to the disjointed, incohesive approach of individual clubs.

Xmas at the Races is a great promotion, but I think it is only promoted to the industry, nothing mainstream

 

 

 

3 hours ago, hesi said:

The expectation is though, that the national body(NZTR) handles mainstream marketing and promotion, but they have a limited marketing resource or budget, so it is left to the disjointed, incohesive approach of individual clubs.

They have an almost unlimited potential marketing budget actually. Just they've chosen to waste it all on stakes expenditure instead of marketing, infrastructure or anything else constructive. Sad and hopeless really.

[hesi]

I wouldn't say almost unlimited potential marketing budget

80.4 mil revenue, 74.4 from RB, 71.6 paid in stakemoney.

Lets say 5 mil Marketing, 10 mil per year on infrastructure, total stakes paid will take a 21% drop

 

Edited July 29, 2018 by hesi

[curious]

59 minutes ago, hesi said:

I wouldn't say almost unlimited potential marketing budget

80.4 mil revenue, 74.4 from RB, 71.6 paid in stakemoney.

Lets say 5 mil Marketing, 10 mil per year on infrastructure, total stakes paid will take a 21% drop

 

Yep, something like that would make sense.

[hesi]

Thought you might say that, the cacophony of wails from the industry could be deafening tho

[curious]

Step one at the NZRB/ TAB level is as below. A little goes a long way.

Keeneland Racecourse in Lexington, Ky., will restore lower takeout rates for many of its wagers during the track’s upcoming spring meet, three months after drawing the ire of the horseplaying community for raising the takeout rates on nearly all of its bets for last October’s fall meet, the track announced on Wednesday.

The decision to roll back the takeout increases on win, place, show, and exacta wagers is a striking reversal for Keeneland, which had defended the higher takeout rates last year as a means to bolster its purses, even as horseplayers took to social media to castigate the track and urge players to boycott the fall meet. Total wagering at Keeneland’s fall meet fell 8.7 percent compared with fall wagering in 2016.

“Keeneland’s goals are mission-oriented, and we continually review, measure, and listen to our customers across all business lines to ensure our operations promote the health and vibrancy of the horse industry,” Bob Elliston, Keeneland’s vice president of racing and sales, said in a release.

Takeout rates on win, place, and show wagers will be reduced from 17.5 percent to 16 percent, the rate that preceded the increase. Takeout on exactas will be reduced from 22 percent to 19.5 percent, half a percentage point higher than the rate prior to the increase. All other takeouts on exotic wagers, such as the trifecta, superfecta, pick three, and pick four, will remain 22 percent, while the takeout on the pick five will remain at 15 percent. The takeout on the pick five was lowered last year with the takeout increases.

As when Keeneland raised its takeout rates, bettors took to social media immediately after the announcement Wednesday. They voiced their approval of the lower rates, with some claiming victory due to last year’s boycott. Keeneland’s reputation as a fan-friendly venue was significantly tarnished by the decision, with players complaining that the racetrack had betrayed one of its core constituencies.

In an interview, Elliston said that Keeneland talked with horseplayers following last year’s fall meet and decided that it would designate the win, place, show and exacta pools for rollbacks because the takeout rates for those pools were higher than competitors’ rates in the same pools. Elliston also said that those bets generally produce the highest rates of churn, or won money that is bet back into the pools.

“If you look specifically at win-place-show pools and the exacta pool, that is a total of 57 percent of our wagering,” Elliston said. “We were out of step there, and we needed to do something about that.”

Keeneland officials had defended the takeout hike as a means to increase revenue so that it could continue to raise purses at its two annual meets, as it has every year since 2012. Despite the drop in handle last fall, purses were up 3.3 percent.

Revenue from Keeneland’s auction business went into a free fall in 2008 after the collapse of the stock market and the subsequent tightening of credit markets, dropping from a high of $815.3 million in 2007 to a low of $381.6 million in 2010. Total sales in 2017 were $538.7 million, up 2.8 percent compared with total sales in 2016.

Elliston said that Keeneland will notify simulcast outlets about the new takeout rates in the coming weeks, and that the host fee rates paid by the outlets will decline at the same rate as the takeout reductions. When Keeneland raised its takeout rates, it split the extra revenue from the increases with host sites. Most host sites that award rebates to their biggest customers then increased the size of the awards so that rebated players did not play against the full increase in the takeout rates.

TAB level is takeouts. A little goes a long way based on the evidence.