Let’s cut straight to the chase and no sarcasm this week! Anything that is a positive to increasing attendances at the races should be supported and the 30 min trial in Victoria is a great move.
The shortening to 30 minutes between races is something that will be explored at Caulfield with full support of the Melbourne Racing Club – although I am pretty sure we will not be seeing 30 minute gaps at Flemington, for example.
Likewise I am sure the MRC won’t be having a 30 min gap before the Blue Diamond or the Caulfield Cup to maximise turnover.
It was interesting to note comments from Greg Carpenter referring to Victoria as the state for innovation and this 30 minute trial is one for innovation. Certainly we encourage any and all innovations – but obviously within constraints.
This has had ramifications for other states with direct clashes in races between Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide metropolitan races and short gaps at other times. Any delays will see things turn into a shambles.
As I said in our last column:
“And I predict this situation will only get worse as Victoria goes on its own with the raceday clock as it aims to reduce the time between races as evidenced by an upcoming trial which will cause conflicts with other thoroughbred races across Australia and thus on the coverage of Sky 1.”
So where does that leave us? The other states really don’t have an option as Racing Victoria fully backed with support from the Melbourne Racing Club and the financial results of some positive wagering data are going to go ahead with this and will be a standard for Pakenham and Moonee Valley night races – and that will generate customer feedback, expected to be positive.
What will other jurisdictions, including Racing NSW, Racing Queensland, media outlet Sky Racing to do? They may just have to work around the times I would suggest.
It’s still a better innovation test than putting the major race of the day as the last race, which was tried against pretty good advice, and failed.
The racing jurisdiction without a board, Racing QLD, was busy this week putting together a draft racing calendar for next season that includes a return to racing on Tuesday’s in the Sunshine State.
This is going to increase turnover by seven per cent, as stated in the release. RQLD participants wish it was that easy. Anyway a step in the right direction but if somebody does not suggest and get night racing at the Gold Coast pronto – well, I give up.
My column asking for turnover figures for the Magic Millions raceday caused a stir, with RQLD eventually releasing a press release that was short on exact detail and figures. I even got a call from the shadow racing minister asking where I get my info from.
I asked Tatts for comments regarding a 20% increase in turnover and the response was “As you will appreciate, being a listed company, we are restricted in what information we can release. Our turnover on the Gold Coast Magic Millions meeting was up more than 20 per cent (just to clarify – that’s more than, not exactly 20 per cent).
“We had strong promotional support in place for this meeting, including a $1.5mil guaranteed quaddie pool, money back for 2nd and 3rd (up to $50) on all ten races, as well and increased and improved facilities on-course, all of which helped contribute to the strong performance.”
I went back to them with a copy of the Tabcorp release following the Melbourne Cup, so we now know what a listed company can disclose.
I pointed out only 9 races – up from 8 in 2015, so on the basis of the information disclosed and no reply to refute from UBET, we are forced to report that turnover was flat on Magic Millions day on a race by race basis.
Tabcorp also reported good positive numbers this morning for the half year July to Dec 2015, even if they were flat. Here’s the release to the ASX.
Main items include wagering revenue up 1.8% in total, with tote betting down 3.7%, but fixed odds up 19.6%. Luxbet revenue fell 5.7% and the saviour for Queensland, Trackside, down 2.9%.
The investment in the new UK platform SunBet, costs associated with possible merge with Tatts, and the partnership with Longitude for innovation in tote pooling technology, were interesting side comments.
Tabcorp has 420,000 account customers, up 5%. Would be interesting to know how many of these also have a corporate account.
We look forward to Tatts/Ubet results!
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