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Music Lesson

"The lesson from Napster and iTunes is that there's even MORE music than there was before," marketing guru Seth Godin says in a recent interview. Pull the Pocket translates for racing:

The lesson from ADW and the Internet is that there's even MORE opportunities to see racing than there was before.

And yet ...

Posted by JC, Nov 14, 2008 05:55 PM

It Bears Repeating

A reminder: "Web 2.0 is a conversation."

See also: "He was the first politician I dealt with who understood that the technology was a given and that it could be used in new ways." (There's a lesson for racing in that understanding.)

Will do: "Look for the NTRA to continue its efforts ... with a heavy emphasis on wikinomics."

Just one small thing: "The age of crowdsourcing your way to success is over."

Posted by JC, Nov 11, 2008 09:30 PM

It's Awesome

Version 1.2 of the MLB At Bat iPhone app wins raves from baseball fans. And makes this racing fan a little envious. Imagine: Results from any track? Final times, fractions, and odds? Chart comments? Video highlights? All on my mobile device? Yes, yes, yes, yes, please. As long as I'm dreaming, let's throw in the ability to look up historical data on horses, jockeys, trainers, etc., and simple stats too.

Related: MLB has been ahead of most sports when it comes using web and mobile technologies successfully. Check out this interesting Fast Company article about the success of MLB Advanced Media, started in 2000 after 30 clubs pooled $75 million. The group, responsible for developing wireless services, web apps, streaming video products, etc. brought in $450 million in 2007. "No one in the game believed that the Internet would be as pervasive a commercial vehicle for us in such a short amount of time." There's a lesson in there for racing, despite the industry's fragmentation ...

Posted by JC, Sep 4, 2008 11:00 AM

Activist Punter

... organizes complaints online about the going over UK turf courses, accuses tracks of misleading readings, gains support. Progress lies ahead, reports the Guardian:

"This is very much an issue that is being looked at," Paul Struthers, of the BHA, said yesterday. "The problem is that to be able to make realistic comparisons between GoingStick readings at different tracks, we need to compile sufficient data. At the end of this year, we will have two full years' of readings, which should enable us to do just that.
"Use of the GoingStick will be required at all tracks from January 1, when we would also hope to encourage clerks to take readings much closer to racing, which could be published on our website."

This goes back to our conversation on Monday, neatly demonstrating how technology has changed the relationship between racing and its fans by giving people an easy way to connect, wherever they might be, whatever the issue ...

Posted by JC, Aug 7, 2008 07:55 AM

This Is Key

From the transcript (PDF) of the HTA/TRA joint meeting "Racing and New Technologies" panel comes this key insight from Eric Wing of the NTRA:

I think the goal should be to use the technology, not to make the bet simpler or to bet more money, but to bring the passion back into the game.

Absolutely, and here's a good place to start figuring out how to accomplish that.

Posted by JC, Jul 1, 2008 11:30 AM

It's a Start

NTRA president Alex Waldrop launches a blog.

Posted by JC, Apr 10, 2008 04:45 PM

Lucky Hockey Fans

And no, I'm not talking about Teresa getting a sweaty blue shirt, as fun as that sounded. Earlier this week PaidContent reported that the NHL is expanding its online presence with a video player that offers seven channels (more to come as each of the league's teams add content) and deep archives:

The new channels, organized around themes, give the league a way to pull its digital content into linear viewing instead of piecemeal. At the same time, users have flexibility to pick clips and to go deep. For instance, click "more" under the results of a game in the Game Highlights channel and you can see a list of goals and click on the corresponding video as I did with Sunday's 500th goal by Keith Tkachuk, then click on his name and see video clips for his goals stretching back to November 2005 after the hockey lock-out ended.

Imagine such a video player for racing. Or, something like MLB's Mosaic. (Admittedly, Mosaic is problem-prone and not everyone loves it, but still -- six games at once!)

One thing that struck me reading about the player is that its development was overseen by the NHL's VP of broadband and new media production. That's one benefit of having a real league office -- your sport can hire someone to direct these sorts of fan-friendly innovations.

Posted by JC, Apr 10, 2008 11:45 AM

Here Comes Everybody

Well, this is interesting: On Left at the Gate yesterday, Alan posted a conversation he had on Saturday at Aqueduct with Breeders' Cup media contact Jim Gluckson about the BC changes announced earlier this year. According to Gluckson, BC officials were taken aback by the ferocity of the criticism and charges of sexism from bloggers, racing forums, and prominent columnists that greeted the news. Changing the name of the Breeders' Cup Distaff to Ladies' Classic was a mistake, albeit well-intentioned, said Gluckson, and going with Filly and Mare Classic might have been a better choice. Hardly scandalous stuff, but you won't find that post on Left at the Gate today. Alan told me in an email that a Breeders' Cup representative asked nicely if he would consider taking down the post since Gluckson was speaking informally, and he chose to do so, pending an official statement. (On the web, though, nothing ever disappears.)

I've been reading Clay Shirky's "Here Comes Everybody," which is the tech buzz book of the moment and deservedly so, since it makes sense of how social networks and web 2.0 tools are upending relationships between individuals and institutions, consumers and businesses. Because of blogs, YouTube, and Twitter, the airline passengers' bill of rights is a legislative issue, the world knows about the crackdown on Buddhist monks protesting the Burmese Junta, and Michael Arrington has a working web connection again. Every institution is subject to being reshaped by the net. Racing is no exception, and neither is the industry's struggle to figure out how function in this wired landscape. Just last month, NTRA president Alex Waldrop wrote a column that talked up the organization's web 2.0 strategy for connecting with fans and horseplayers:

Already, amateur bloggers and core fans are communicating and creating content every day on the Internet about racing and the industry. Why not formally enlist them in the process? ... Using the social networking opportunities that dominate the Internet, we can now engage our most enthusiastic players on a massive scale and foster the collaboration so necessary for real change.

Sounds promising, and you can now find widgets, podcasts, and a link to the NTRA Facebook page on ntra.com, but it takes a bit more than that to engage your audience these days. There are two challenges to overcome for this strategy to be a success: One is for institutions like the NTRA and Breeders' Cup to grasp that they don't control the conversation anymore. The traditional model of broadcast communications -- from one to many -- is no longer effective, at least, not if those organizations want to keep and attract fans and customers. The second is to foster a web 2.0 culture within the industry. Not so much among fans and players -- give people the tools and information they want and just watch them create -- but among the managers and executives. What Gluckson told Alan suggests that the industry is paying attention to the conversation happening among its most ardent fans, but the BC's request that Alan reconsider his innocuous post says the old ways still rule.

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By the way, have you signed the petition calling for the Breeders' Cup to restore the name of the Distaff or change it to the Filly and Mare Classic? Click here to add your name -- it sounds like we have a shot at making that happen.

Posted by JC, Apr 8, 2008 05:05 PM

This Includes Racing

"We are plainly witnessing a restructuring of the media businesses, but their suffering isn't unique, it's prophetic. All businesses are media businesses, because whatever else they do, all businesses rely on the managing of information... The increase in the power of both individuals and groups, outside traditional organizational structures is unprecedented. Many institutions we rely on today will not survive this change without significant alteration, and the more an institution or industry relies on information as its core product, the greater and more complete the change will be." -- Clay Shirky, "Here Comes Everybody"

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"People take information and build knowledge. When you give them new information they will create new knowledge, absolutely and without question." -- Bill James, NYT

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And here, Gary Vaynerchuk explains how tech 2008 looks like hip-hop 1985. What we find revolutionary now will be ubiquitous and mainstream in 10 years:

Posted by JC, Apr 4, 2008 08:50 AM

Now Playing on Hulu

TVG. The racing network has launched a broadband division and uploaded a selection of evergreen trainer and jockey profiles and handicapping clips to the favorably-reviewed video site, which attracted a bit of buzz at SXSW when it was announced Monday that the site would come out of private beta this week. You might be thinking this is no big deal, but Hulu is no YouTube. Content isn't user-generated, it's original programming from NBC Universal and a raft of other providers -- including the NHL, NBA, and Fox -- and despite some shortcomings -- such as no downloads or international access -- the site is a pretty remarkable web service, pointing the way premium on-demand video is going online and offering significant potential for attracting an audience to racing -- so long as the content is compelling.

Posted by JC, Mar 13, 2008 05:00 PM

What Racing Needs ...

More geeks, more technologists, more people thinking deeply and creatively about points as diverse as PHP vs. Ruby, IPTV, experience design, usability, prediction markets, social networks, mashups, content distribution.

Racing needs a start-up culture.

Posted by JC, Mar 4, 2008 12:00 PM

Moneytrack

I just finished reading "Moneyball," by Michael Lewis, the surprisingly engrossing story of how the Oakland A's used statistical data to build a winning team. Like a lot of other racing fans, I have an overlapping interest in baseball stats, and I find it fascinating to follow another sport also afflicted with a sclerotic power structure, dominated by people who believe they know everything about their fans and how to put on the show or market their data. The result, a collective failure of imagination leading to a management culture more interested in brand caretaking than innovation, opens up intriguing little niches, exploitable market inefficiencies. In the late-1990s in baseball, the inefficiency was in statistical analysis, in the mid-2000s in racing, the inefficiency is in technology, which no one has quite figured out yet ...

Related: Over on Handride, Patrick picks up on the news that Intel is producing chips that will substantially improve online video quality, sees a glorious opportunity for the industry.

Posted by JC, Nov 15, 2007 08:00 AM

Tuesday Odds and Ends

- California pushes the ADW mess toward a solution, beginning an eight-month experiment that splits broadcast and wagering rights. So, video remains exclusive, but horseplayers can wager on any track through any online wagering service in the state (Blood-Horse).

- From ESPN Sports Poll: "The number of people in the U.S. ages 18+ who said they are interested in horse racing increased for an unmatched fifth consecutive year."

- It was sad to see Lava Man finish sixth in the California Cup Classic against a field he would have demolished last year (LA Times); it was also sad to see Digger all alone in the Laurel winner's circle (WashPost).

- Nashua winner Etched is Dubai-bound, as is impressive maiden winner Music Note (DRF).

Posted by JC, Nov 6, 2007 08:00 AM

DC Ban Traces to Oregon

The abrupt ADW closures that shut out DC horseplayers last weekend were the result of a state criminal code review by the Oregon Racing Commission, reports John Scheinman in today's Washington Post:

Commission officials recently reviewed state criminal codes and discovered it is illegal to accept or place bets on horse races within the District. As the regulator of a multi-jurisdictional "hub" for interstate horse racing bets made online, the commission advised advanced deposit wagering companies (ADWs) they were at risk of breaking the law.

The Oregon Racing Comission regulates the hub through which most US-based online wagering is routed.

Displaying their usual concern for the customer, Youbet and other services closed mid-card Saturday with little notice. "I'm betting early in the card, maybe the third or fourth race, and when I got back on for the ninth I couldn't bet," Mike Soper told the Post. "In the middle of the day, they decided this was illegal and they couldn't take bets."

10/8 Addendum: J.S. supplies some additional information from his Thoroughbred Times article in the comment below and raises a few good questions -- what is going on with Youbet?

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The California Horse Racing Board is considering requiring all ADWs that operate in the state to share wagering content as a condition of licensing. "I believe it is time for this board to step up and do something for our fans and do something for our industry," said CHRB chairman Richard Shapiro (ThoroTimes). The proposal would sensibly separate wagering rights from broadcast rights, a necessary division for the online market to evolve.

Posted by JC, Oct 5, 2007 11:30 AM

Failure Happens

Nothing to do with racing, but I'm fascinated by the story of last Tuesday's massive power outage at a San Francisco data center that wiped out Typepad, Technorati, Yelp, Craigslist, and a bunch of other Web 2.0 sites for several hours. Turns out, the impossible happened:

In this incident, latent defects caused three generators to fail during start-up. No customers were affected until a fourth generator failed 30 seconds later, which overloaded the surviving backup system and caused power failures to 3 of 8 customer areas.
What's most interesting is that the redundant design of the system is what caused it to fail so completely. The failure of the fourth generator should have only brought down one area instead of three. This kind of cascade failure is common in complex & tightly coupled systems. In my experience, these sorts of failure-modes are often identified and then promptly dismissed as being "nearly impossible." Unfortunately, the impossible often becomes reality. (O'Reilly Radar)

Actually, I guess the story is racing-related: Horseplayers well understand the impossible becoming reality, upsetting best-laid wagers, and anyone who plays multi-race exotics knows all about the necessity and danger of redundant design ...

Posted by JC, Jul 28, 2007 10:55 AM

TrackNet, Arch-Rivals to Share

Don't get too excited, it's a one-day deal: TrackNet announced today that it would share the August 4 Claiming Crown at Ellis Park with Youbet and TVG (Blood-Horse). All three ADWs will donate fees generated by Claiming Crown wagers back to the Claiming Crown organization (ThoroTimes).

Posted by JC, Jul 24, 2007 09:00 PM

All Quiet Re: Ellis Pick 4

John Pricci wonders why silence has greeted Ellis Park's decision to lower takeout to 4% on its pick four wager:

I'm no math genius, far from it. But a wager that puts the odds in our favor over the long term, one where track executives and horsemen and legislators from the Commonwealth of Kentucky came together and took a risk for our gain and, ultimately, theirs?
This is a very big deal, and nobody seems to care.
Reaction, any reaction, yeah or nay, was anticipated. It would have been a welcome start to meaningful dialogue between racing's considerable uncounted majority and the industry (simulcastors and OTBs don't take attendance). Instead, reaction was next to nothing.

My guess? Because it's Ellis Park, and it's one wager. If Del Mar announced lower takeout on the pick six or NYRA on all exotic plays, there'd probably be more buzz.

Pricci's right though that Ellis took a big step, and that lowered takeout, along with expanded wagering options, are necessary for the industry to climb past the $15 billion handle plateau it's been stuck at since 2000. T.D. Thornton briefly mentioned P2P platforms and betting exchanges in his Blood-Horse chat last month, only two weeks after an article applying "The Long Tail" to racing appeared in the magazine. The ideas are percolating; their implementation will be slow. That's the way of things in racing, where any innovations, particularly those that are technology-based, are approached gingerly, considered threatening to the business models that have stood largely unchanged for 80 years, rather than embraced as opportunities for tremendous, exciting growth. Other industries, such as music and print media, have been just as wary, but they haven't had the luxury of ignoring technology's disruptive effects and doling out changes on their terms to customers. What racing needs is a similar sort of pressure, a few good start-ups shaking up content and wagering models. That's when horseplayers and racing fans will start to get what they want, at the prices they're looking for.

More on the Ellis Park Pick 4: "For the first time ever, horseplayers now have a positive expectation on their investment" (MSNBC).

Posted by JC, Jul 10, 2007 06:00 PM

Bet Needs a Payoff

Andrew Beyer on the TrackNet/TVG/ADW mess:

Churchill, Magna and TVG are pursuing a course of action all too familiar in the racing industry: forgetting about their bettors as they look after their own interests. This time, the industry has angered and alienated many of its dwindling number of customers, who want to make their own free choices about what they can bet and where they can bet.

Posted by JC, Jun 29, 2007 09:00 PM

CDI Buys BRIS, AmericaTab

Big news out of Kentucky this morning: Churchill Downs Incorporated has bought BRIS and AmericaTab.

6/29/07 Update: "Evans said establishment of twinspires.com and the subsequent acquisition of three Internet wagering companies gives CDI 20% of the Internet wagering market, the fastest growing segment of horse race wagering. Noting that wagering on Thoroughbred racing has been flat for the past decade, Evans said the challenge for CDI is to increase its market share" (Blood-Horse).

Posted by JC, Jun 12, 2007 10:00 AM