Good day
The tellytrack debacle has prompted me to write this letter, but this is not about tellytrack per se, but horseracing in general.
You may not believe it, but horse racing is dying in South Africa. I have been a punter for the last 30 years, so I know what I am talking about. Tellytrack is merely a symptom of what is wrong with horseracing. The sad reality is that horseracing has not kept up with the times and has not looked after its customer who is primarily the punter and the owner. I will speak for the punter.
The regular, loyal punter has been totally disregarded by the racing operators and is treated with contempt. The reason for this is because horseracing has not embraced the new SA and is stuck in the apartheid era environment when horseracing was the only game in town. Because horseracing had a monopoly, it did not need to look after its customers as the customer had no other alternative to spend his betting and gambling rand. Now that the ballpark has changed, and casinos, lotteries, sports betting,
etc has entered our world, horseracing has been left behind and is floundering! You have not adapted to the changed landscape, you donot have the capability to attract new players and you donot have the marketing nous to take horseracing into the modern world. It is no longer the Sport of Kings, but you hang onto the romance to your detriment.
Let me give you a few examples of how the regular punter is mistreated. On Met Day and Queen's Plate Day, the once a year day-tripper is treated like the king and queen, and the regular punter is shoved aside. On that day our money is not important, but the other 50 weeks of the year we keep the game going! Where is the loyalty programme for the regular punter? The operators do nothing to attract punters to the course, the TAB staff are poorly trained, disinterested and treat the punters with contempt. As if they are doing us a favour to take our bet at the off-course or at the track! The race-course facilities are appalling and non-existent. The race-course has become a soulless, desolate ghost town, except for the 5 or 6 big racedays on the SA calendar! You are presiding over a dying sport, a sport going nowhere fast!
Coming back to Tellytrack- the coverage and replays has deteriorated alarmingly! No betting is shown anymore ( and I know all about the licensing agreements with the bookmakers society, but so what?).Engage another bookmaking group to provide up-to-date betting info- Hollywood, Betting World, etc. Make a plan, don't sit on your butts and lament the situation, provide your customer with information! Betting is the lifeblood of racing, but you decide to not provide betting information- how dumb can you get? Replays are shown without any captions about distance, track, race number, etc, why? Now overseas racing is separate? That's fine, but I will no longer play overseas racing, as I can't go home to watch it, so another income stream is going to start drying up!
You need to do many things better in future if you still want viable sport and industry in 10 years time:
You need to start with your Tote staff- train them well and teach them to respect the customer! Incentivize them to drive up the bet-taking, you'll get more bets taken in the last two minutes than you do now. Customer service is your biggest challenge! Your staff are driving people away from the course and totes because of their indifference, disrespect and poor customer service! Your staff think they are doing us a favour by taking our bets, whereas we are actually keeping them in a job by placing bets!
The merit rating system is far too complicated and has driven many punters away. You need to be a mathematician to study, rate, handicap and select horses on form! Simplfy it!
Introduce a Loyalty programme for the regular punter. You will have to invest in technology, but that's fine- everybody else has done that besides horseracing, so it's time you invested in your business and your customer!
Make the racecourse experience more exciting and enjoyable, it's boring at the moment and the event takes far too long- 25 minutes between races is a good start! Better facilities on course, keep your food and drink prices low, don't try and make money on that, you make your money on your core business after all which is betting!
Jockeys and trainers are arrogant and aloof towards the general punting public. That's why they are not popular as sports men and women. It's their own fault. The old days of secrecy and exclusivity has not been shaken off by your main players, and then you wonder why no-one knows or cares who is the champion jockey in SA outside of the racing fraternity?
Sporting Post is the only channel (besides the racing websites) that provides information and news about racing. The Newspapers have written you off, you are no longer relevant in the general public's eyes, and the sad thing is that the horse is also no longer relevant. In the old days everybody knew who the top horses were, nowadays no-one cares! Have a presence in people's daily lives, like football, rugby and cricket!
I love horseracing and think it is great sport and enjoyable way to spend an afternoon, that is why I am so critical about the way racing is deteriorating. You can ignore my feedback and that is also fine, I have just been frustrated about horseracing for a long time, and this has been my opportunity to tell you how the average, regular punter is probably feeling.
Michael Jacobs
(via email)
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