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Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Rebate Envy?

Well, the last post had some good comments and then a nerve appears to have been hit regarding the subject of rebates.  There is the argument that rebates are needed to allow big gamblers to 'win' versus the more recreational bettor who resent these players are given an advantage they don't get.

My personal feeling as an admittedly recreational player is offering rebates to whales while the little guy has to play against the full rake is patently unfair.  Yes, I know in the business world volume rebates are0 part of the pricing scheme but it seems to be wrong here.  If tracks can offer rebates to the whales, they should cut the takeout so everyone gets the benefit.  Quite honestly, if it wasn't the fact I enjoy harness racing, I would have stopped playing the horses a long time ago because of the 'unfair' advantage some players are given.  The fact there isn't another gambling game I like is another reason I still play the trotters.

Mind you, the issue of rebates for players involves all forms of horse racing, it is not a unique harness racing issue but one has to wonder with racing trying to attract new horseplayers, what chance does it have to attract knowledgeable gamblers when they find out they are playing against gamblers who get rebates while they get none.

Thoughts?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Watching live racing at the track is my preference. Unfortunately, my closest track has take out that includes 30% on trifectas and superfectas. Over the years, I've made numerous suggestions for offering extra value to customers who take the time and spend gas money traveling to the track. There have been good promotions in that time, but virtually no daily benefits for on track bettors. Could be free live racing programs, drawings for betting coupons and food, lowered or zero takeout on certain winning bets and increased rebates on only bets made at the track. Management didn't buy into those ideas or anything similar.

Anonymous said...

With all due respect, your post about rebates suggests that you don't really understand how they work (comments like "offering rebates to whales while the little guy has to play against the full rake is patently unfair" confirm this). The truth of the matter is that BOTH the "little guy" and "the whale" are playing against the full rake - the only difference is that the "middle man" (generally the ADW) is making LESS money on the whale, than he is on the little guy (in that he "pays more" for the whale's business, than he does for the casual player). And by the way, there are several ADWs that offer nice rebates to even the smallest of players - failure to take advantage of them is just foolish, and "lazy" on the part of those whining the loudest!

With today's small harness pools, it's virtually impossible for ANY large player to turn a profit, because the pools simply can't handle large wagers without significantly hurting the payoffs. But without the rebate, the large player (if he's even marginally intelligent) will take his action someplace else, leaving almost nothing in the pools for the "little guy" (if you don't believe me, get a breakdown of where the handle comes from for almost every harness track, and you'll see that a huge percentage comes from a handful of ADW's, fueled by the bigger players).

The only gripe players (large and small) have is with the Meadowlands, which allows THEIR biggest wagering group to have direct access to the tote system, allowing their own computer to make a large assortment of wagers right at the very end, using an arbitrage formula to play all the existing "overlays". This truly gives them an huge edge, unavailable to any other players. That is NOTHING like a rebate, which in no way gives any player an advantage over another. I hope this clears things up a bit.

That Blog Guy said...

You raise a good point about who is paying the rebate, often it is the ADWs which offer it but while the rake is the same for all, the net result is those players which get those rebates have a net cut in the cost of wagering, call it rake or something else, the net result is the same.

In some states, laws keep you from legally finding an ADW which offers any good rebates. New Jersey is one of them.