Tellytrack and horseracing

Cellphone penetration in South Africa is about 90%. Right?

Smartphone penetration probably a little/lot lower.

Here's a relevant example of 'galloping' technology which could have a dramatic downward impact on the numbers employed in capturing bets and, therefore, increased profitability for the operator.

I sat down in a coffee bar in a major mall this morning. On my table was one of those triangular little boards offering the following service:

Swipe your smartphone over the code and you can call up and settle your bill on your phone without any further interaction from a waitron. (A R25 discount on your first electronic bill is offered as an inducement). Clearly the next step will be to swipe the item on the menu that you want to eat and, presto!, the entire waitron population is at risk of becoming redundant. The establishment can thereafter quickly familiarize itself with your eating and drinking patterns and market to you accordingly.

Anyone who has a Saftote account offers precisely the same insight and marketing opportunities to the operator right now. Who do......pretty much nothing with that information.

It would not be that far fetched for the operator to offer a joint (subsidized) smartphone package to identifiable customers to further foster automated betting. Given the massive takeout ( and IT IS massive) from tote bets the amortization period would be embarrassingly short.
And what about the " I got my phone courtesy of......." spinoff effect.

My sense of the status quo is that this business spends so much time applying band aid to things that are broken that they have little time to be creative and innovative.

I fancy that pretty soon people might tune into Tellytrack simply to have a good, incredulous laugh at what a Standard Definition television broadcast looks like. At this point they seem in no hurry to switch to HD.

Cannot agree with you more about constant operational issues and a stagnant market standing in the way of creativity and innovation. Phumelela's diversified operations are doing really well with the core tote business dragging down overall results.

This is why the operator is using the band aid approach on the Hospice patient and why there is a reluctance to toss good money after bad. Unfortunately you have to spend money to make money which they are doing in other areas and then subsidising racing, not a healthy long term model.

There is only one way to boost the bottom line and improve the playing experience of loyal supporters and that is an aggressive growth strategy to bring new money into racing. A lack of belief, which is what we are currently seeing is like a cancer eating away at the resource base until there is nothing left. Don't expect major improvements until racing can be turned around and that is not on the short term agenda.

Hopefully a compromise between bookmakers and PGE regarding the open bet will have positive results that might improve the situation for everyone involved, punters included.

I see that the bookies v TT case was thrown out today in Favour of TT

My friends and I have a standing engagement at Kenilworth Racecourse. We meander our way to the course once every three months; we watch the sport we love, and we catch up.

We play exclusively online when we are at our respective homes. When we come to the course, we play via our mobiles.

So what happens...we have to use our own mobiles, our own Internet Service Provider and nine times out of ten, our cellphone battery invariably gives up the ghost after race 7 or thereabouts...

An incentive for the on course punter; provide us with a power point where we can plug in and charge our cellphone, as well as Wi Fi to play our bets.

This can be up and running by tomorrow if need be; Username is Telebet #, and a password...Easy as that; two relatively small incentives for the punter to come to the course...

There are many more "little" incentives that could actually lure off course punters back to the course; the two above are small examples of that...

@yeldah

Good idea! Esp for the big meets when the 3g towers are clogged.

The only vote you will ever get is to vote with your feet!

Check the stats on the dwindling number of breeders and owners who have left the business/sport.

It would be very interesting to know how many regular punters are finding another form of entertainment. I would place a big bet that if these stats were available there would be a sharp decline in the last 5 years.

Cannot speak for win, place and similar pools but the multi-leg exotics have all shown pretty decent growth over the last year or so. Don't know the exact stats but a simple calculation of net pool, divided by even the minimum bet shows that customer numbers are a big problem that must be addressed. Even at best case scenario we might only have somewhere between 100 000 to 140 000 active punters.

Will TT show Glorious Goodwood?

Teletrack is back with a full programme and if today is anything to go by players that concentrate on local racing will be peeved.Parade ring previews ( mediocre coverage in anycase)
horses on the way to the start,previews ,track reports will be a thing of the past.
My point is why go through all the expenses of employing on course presenters when the previews aren't aired.
And then what is the use of showing us a bunch of unidentifiable horses going down on a split screen

colors wrote: Teletrack is back with a full programme and if today is anything to go by players that concentrate on local racing will be peeved.Parade ring previews ( mediocre coverage in anycase)
horses on the way to the start,previews ,track reports will be a thing of the past.
My point is why go through all the expenses of employing on course presenters when the previews aren't aired.
And then what is the use of showing us a bunch of unidentifiable horses going down on a split screen

I think more is achieved by a 4 horse run-on package than presenters dissecting the field- Employ a form analyst (or use those that work there - Nico is pretty good at that ) to compile days before - Actually use the Computaform tipster's first 4 or 5 and stop wasting time on people that still believe a one-time-winner cannot beat a five-time-winner or a two-year-old cannot win in open company. There should be be a "ring man" who asks trainers if their horse has any set backs in training or has improved because of a new equipment, operation etc .
Most punters have cut the race up before they ring so the important issues are the last runs(or a recent good run/or one where some factor could have affected the outcome - baulked late etc) and the current well being of the athletes.

Spot on, Mr H.

Who is Mathew Briton?