SPORT RACING IN DECLINE?

RACING IN DECLINE? SPORT

for the uninitiated gambler but the decision rests with the bookmakers. We can only encourage them to make this change. Ladbrokes are sceptical, though. Decimal odds will not have an impact at all, frankly, argues OBrien, but there are many other initiatives that will. He points to the Qipco British Champions series throughout this years at season, culminating in the inaugural British Champions Day, which according to OBrien has given better de nition to the at season. Racing has an array of initiatives, some of which will work, some of which won't, but the key thing is there is much greater thought and investment going into ensuring the sport remains in customers minds. Bookmakers are in agreement that the sport needs to better promote its brightest stars. e recent equine tussles between National Hunt heavyweights Kauto Star and Denman dominated the sports pages while this years sprinting sensation Frankel is arguably the

almost every night and being able to see the action makes a di erence for our customers. In contrast, terrestrial racing coverage has dropped o in recent years. Turnover is still robust for the big meetings on terrestrial TV, particularly the Cheltenham Festival the pinnacle of the National Hunt season. Conversely, erce competition, says Alger, has squeezed pro t margins. Turnover is still very strong on the big festival meetings but there has been a real cut-throat attitude among rms in recent years. Some price wars have led to frequent under-round books, especially on the big Saturday races, and that cannot be good for the long-term future of any rm, regardless of the amount of customers you may attract. Alger, however, doesnt believe the fall in racing bets is a generational issue. Id put the majority of the change in gures down to the popularity of in-play betting, which racing cannot o er. Increasingly, punters sat at home or in the stands like to assess how an event is

Bad form
With horse racing struggling in the battle for the punters pound, betting turnover on the sport has plunged. So whats gone wrong for this stalwart of the gambling arena? Julian Rogers investigates
Its 50 years since betting shops were legalised in Britain, triggering a gold rush of dingy and sparsely-furnished premises accepting bets predominantly on one sport: horse racing. However, betting on the Sport of Kings has dwindled in recent years as racing struggles to engage with young gamblers more au fait with having a utter on football or a virtual roulette machine. e abolition of o -course betting tax in 2001 bucked the trend to some extent but, overall, racings share of the betting market has tumbled in most of the UKs 8,500 betting shops and online. A decade ago, racing wagers accounted for 80 per cent of bookmakers turnover in their shops but this gure has halved to 40 per cent in 2011, according to the Association of British Bookmakers. e fact remains that betting on the horses is a somewhat esoteric activity, even if racing is the second largest spectator sport in the UK. Your average twenty-something punter
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Racing is something that a young person will in all probability not have experienced as an activity unless they have been taken with their parents for a day out. So we need to get racing front of mind with the young audience Nigel Roddis, Racing For Change
nest for a generation. Likewise, 15-times champion jump jockey Tony McCoy being crowned BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 2010 was a tonic for the sport. e key, too, is to o er the punters quality, not quantity. However, critics argue that the calendar today is diluted with an abundance of low-grade, uncompetitive racing. ere is too much racing now and much of it is poor quality and that has to be a turn-o for punters, Wilde suggests. e increase in Sunday racing may generate large crowds on course, but there is less interest in it o course because mostly the Sunday racing is moderate at best and the big hitters think they might as well have a day o . While racing xtures have swelled, live coverage of the sport on terrestrial television has declined. At the turn of the century, the BBC screened 79 days of racing a year. From 2010, however, the broadcaster slashed coverage to a minimum of 13 days a year. Channel 4 Racing, a familiar xture on the Saturday a ernoon TV schedules, currently shows around 80 days a year. Not being able to watch their selection run is o -putting for the armchair bettor, says Alan Alger of online bookmaker Blue Square. Live football matches take place panning out before tapping a bookmaker app on their mobiles and backing their hunches. Indeed, laying in-running racing bets isnt really practical for the betting rms when a ve-furlong sprint is over in 60 seconds. Mobile betting is a rapidly growing product, Alger explains. But it lends itself more to the man on the football terrace or in the pub watching the game rather than your dyed-inthe-wool racing punter. But despite all of racings challenges and competition from football, machines and online poker, its still an integral part of bookmakers revenue. Online wagers on football may have overtaken racing at Betfred but its a di erent story with cash bets in their shops: racing is still eight times that of football. ey put this down to their racing o ers and bonuses appealing to their customer demographic. Ladbrokes OBrien is positive about racings outlook. Racing has had a tough few years, but it is in a far healthier state than it was, say, in the 1970s. He says a more commercial partnership approach with bookmakers and better promotion of the sport will lead to a healthy future. He adds: A strong racing industry and a strong retail betting industry has to be the end game for both parties.
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might not have the know-how or patience to pore over the form for a 20-runner handicap but he will probably have an opinion on whether Arsenal can beat Chelsea on Sunday. It is clearly a generational issue, says Ciaran OBrien, corporate a airs director for Ladbrokes, the largest high street bookmaker. Our data shows that older customers still bet on racing but younger customers are far more likely to bet on football and machines. Betfred spokesperson Jon Wilde reinforces this view: ere are other attractions in betting shops now which require shorter attention spans. In todays faster moving society, younger people in particular will be more attracted to a 30-second virtual race than a three-mile novice chase that takes six minutes to run. With betting habits changing, Racing for Change (RFC) was established to broaden the sports appeal. RFCs betting development director, Nigel Roddis, insists that racing

rewards intellectual endeavour compared to luck-based gambling games in shops. Racing as a betting product provides a more ful lling experience than simply guessing which numbers are going to come up on a roulette machine, or which cartoon dog or car are going to be selected to win from the random number generator back at the TV studio. However, Roddis, acknowledges the need for the sport to be more relevant and accessible. Most people have an opinion on football or other sports that they follow or have played, he says. Racing is something that a young person will in all probability not have experienced as an activity unless they have been taken with their parents for a day out. So we need to get racing front of mind with the young audience. One trial undertaken by RFC was to replace traditional fractional odds with decimal odds (favoured by the betting exchanges). Roddis believes the latter is far easier to comprehend