Big Racing Competition & The "Lottery" Bet

Good Monday everyone. Here are a couple items that I'd like to share with you.

Ah, it appears we've got some competition coming. Sports betting - at racetracks, online, and perhaps their own stand -alone shops might be happening soon.

We know in the past that slot machines and table games on racetrack grounds resulted in an approximate 20% drop in live handle (those numbers could be a little apple to grapefruity, but they're probably close).

If you're an old timer, perhaps you remember going to Belmont in the 1940's, where on-track on Memorial Day $5M was bet (about $60M today), and per capita handle was $77 (almost $1,000 today). Today, as we all know, a formidable amount of money is bet, but about 90% of it is off track, and on-track per capita - as we saw at Sunland Park yesterday for their big raceday - is about $20. It's not the only game in town.

Competition clearly matters. So, what could sports betting do to racing handles? Since we don't know what the potential offering looks like it's hard to speculate on with any firm confidence, but there are some common themes, as well as an historical context to examine. That was done here in HRU yesterday.

"The interest in wagering on sports has been on the rise. Through increased demand, Vegas casinos and sports books have seen revenue jump by more than 400 per cent from the early 1990s. We have a pretty attractive, low-priced product entering horse racing’s space. It should be clear that if legalized, it’s poised to capture more of the market..."

Moving over to another kind of green, Sid Fernando wrote an excellent piece for his newly announced bi-weekly column at the TDN on turf racing. The numbers (supplied by Crunk) are eye-opening. Great piece.

Did you ever wonder what types of tickets hit the super high five "jackpot" pools when there's no mandatory? Gabe Prewitt from Pompano posted the ticket that hit the one for $56k last night.

For those interested, the winning player landed on 1-10-2-7-6 in interesting fashion! Lol. $56,000 later..... pic.twitter.com/0AGlGKbImZ

— Gabe Prewitt (@gabe_prewitt) March 26, 2018

We know that people taking "all" tickets hit these things from time to time.

But it appears we can add, "my cat walked on my keypad and made a bet" to the possibles.

Have a super Monday everyone.