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The Need to Rebrand British Horse Racing
17/10/11

The British Horse Racing Authority, the Racecourse Association and the Horsemen’s group have apparently grown worried about the current slump in horse racing revenues and decided to commission a study regarding the plight of the industry.

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Exactly what ticked off the move is unclear as there appear to be plenty of folks attending races still, but if the above organizations say the industry is in trouble we’d better take their word for it.

The findings of the study were quite unsurprising, however the suggested solutions to some of the problems were less than satisfactory for horse racing lovers.

One of the issues that should be addressed according to the said study is the fact that British horse racing apparently lacks premium products.

The way to do away with this problem is to introduce “premium packages” like back in the days. Premium package holders would gain better access to the ring and a drink or two thrown in, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing at first glance. It would create classes at the track though, and according to many a serious expert, something like that no longer has a place in modern British horse racing.

Another conclusion of the above-said study was that horse racing lacks customer appeal, because it’s not customer-centric. The races are about the horses and the jockeys of course, there’s nothing one can do about that. The main facilities of the race track are also focused on the horses and jockeys, there’s no way to change that either, so the point is quite moot.

Horse racing is also the bearer of rather ancient traditions and of specialized language, both of which can prove to be a hurdle in the way of potential new customers. Traditions are what make horse racing what it is, so there’s not much than can or should be done about this “problem” either. Those potential customers who aren’t willing to look past this particular barrier aren’t likely to make active bettors either.

A real threat to horse racing indentified by the study was the loss of betting-market share to casino-type gambling games. These games should obviously be discouraged as much as possible. “Racinos”, race tracks combined with casinos are therefore only a viable idea on paper. What they’ll achieve in reality is to turn the betting public further away from the horses.

This is what all the industry’s problems really boil down to: the fact that sponsors, advertisers and broadcasters aren’t really beating a path to the track offices or to whomever is in charge of handling these deals can be traced back to the same problem. Sure, the bad economy might’ve hit advertising too, but the bottom line is that sponsors and advertisers do not flock to the track on account of one simple and basic fact: the lack of a potentially rewarding monetary return. The more betting there’ll be at the tracks, the more people will flock to the races and that’s when advertisers will return in droves as well.

The other problem is that many of those who are interested in the races choose to stay at home and to place their wagers online, where the sportsbooks give them all sorts of bonuses, and poker rakeback-like loyalty deals to pursue them to return. Such promotions achieve the same effect as poker prop deals do in online poker, however the existence of online poker never really put the live version of the game into jeopardy, thus online betting shouldn’t hurt live betting at the track either.

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