Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Money Talks

I read in a book somewhere, I think it was on marketing or maybe psychology, an interesting take on opinion and human nature. Some smart fella who wrote it said that people can have loud vociferous opinions on something, but you get to see their real opinion when you ask them to put money on it.

The Rachel Alexandra-Zenyatta horse of the year fight in the US was another time the money talked.

Fan polls, wishes and wants all pointed to Zenyatta. She won web poll after web poll. The wishers had a strong point. She was 14 for 14 in her career and voters not giving it to her as a swan song is not something we would see too often. She was the first female to win the Breeders Cup Classic, as well.

But the cash did the talking. On Betfair Z was not the chalk. Rachel was picked to win. Web polls are cool, but they don't cost you any money.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very interesting observation. I would add that just because a group is higly vocal on the internet doesn't mean they represent the majority, though it can be hard to remember that over all the shouting.

Cangamble said...

I am starting to think that insiders are playing at Betfair through friends.
They got last year's American Idol right too.
I think in both cases, the winner was known long before it was announced.
Talk about free money if I'm right.

Sid Fernando said...

The fateful bridge game, when the news was leaked that Rachel had won, led to the inside money at Betfair -- how could they lose? CanGamble is right. Everyone on Twitter knew, too, and I told J. Chapel to go one ahead to LA because the event would be fun though the reults was known.

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