Should sports betting or casino gambling come to the Meadowlands, New Meadowlands LLC has selected a dance partner as Hard Rock International has entered into an equity partnership with New Meadowlands Racetrack which extends into any new forms of gaming to come to the East Rutherford, NJ racetrack. In addition to gaming, this position includes hotel and restaurant development.
While this is clearly, this is a partnership based on the assumption alternative gaming will come to the Meadowlands, it is possible the partnership may jointly stage concerts on dark days in the interim.
Speaking of the Meadowlands, how did the Meadowlands winter meet do? Handle went up roughly 32.5% for the winter meet, accounting for 25% of all standardbred racing in the United States. Will the Meadowlands be able to keep up such figures? That is questionable with more tracks being open; the Pennsylvania tracks on their own has taken a hit on the field size at the Meadowlands and the last two Saturdays, the $3 million mark has been missed; something which was occurring with regularity this year.
At Monticello Raceway, today's third race had an interesting finish. Safe Sex finished ahead of Welcome Lover for the win. As one person noted to me, Safe Sex raced uncovered (going wire to wire). How much did this hunch exacta pay? $14.00.
For the first time in years, the Dexter Cup at Freehold doesn't require eliminations. The race will be contested as a single dash on May 4 at Freehold Raceway.
Try, try, and try again goes Penn National Gaming. They have gone to the OSRC regarding their plans for indoor seating available for harness racing at their proposed track in Dayton, Ohio. Their current proposal does not add any additional seats indoors, but a promise if the demand dictates it, they would add another thousand seats enclosed over two phases. The OSRC will consider the proposal but without a firm definition as to what dictates demand, the chances any new indoors seating is slim.
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4 comments:
The Meadowlands handle increase is meaningless when the bulk of it comes from wagers that contribute virtually nothing to the bottom line of the horsemen or management. Furthermore, it only serves to weaken the product that much more, since the cartel is wagering with enormous advantages over the general public. In a nutshell, virtually ANY "logical" wager (WPS, Ex, Tri,etc) that WAS going to be an overlay, loses it's value when the cartel crew is allowed, by computer, to place last minute wagers on all of these "overlays". The ONLY players who benefit from this added handle (other than the cartel members) are those who play "hopeless" combinations, which do pay a premium when they actually hit - but the majority of "form" players are at an EXTREME disadvantage, and will no doubt see their own losses steadily grow.
As HRU reported in an earlier edition: http://www.harnessracingupdate.com/restricted/pdf/hru/hru032213.pdf, the handle increase is significant. First of all, for the bottom line, something is better than nothing; they collected a commission, albeit smaller on what they bet whereas if that money wasn't bet, they would get nothing. Secondly, the additional liquidity in the pools induced others to wager at the regular rake. If anything, the cartel experience is showing racing is taking too much of a rake and it is necessary to find a way to drive the rake down.
It may interest you to know the cartel is not the first one to wager with computers. There was a feature shown at the Meadowlands on how the owner of Odds On Racing had people working computers to place bets at various tracks.
As for computer wagering, it would be nice if it wasn't there but it is part of the world these days. If you play (invest) in the stock market, you are competing with computer-driven 'investing' looking to take advantage of minute inefficiencies in the market; to some degree, it is being done with horse racing, perhaps even at Yonkers. Granted, without a discount for these 'cartels', maybe not as much but don't you think there are some big boys using computer programs to determine which horse they should bet at the last minute and then are betting them manually?
If racing lowers the rake for all players, there would be no need to cut cartel players special deals, the handle would be high enough. When are horsemen going to allow the takeout to be cut? No time soon so we are stuck with the current situation.
This is why exchange wagering is the best bet for bettors. First of all, the much lower rake which will be made up with volume. Yes, computer betting will come into the market as well to pick up what inefficiencies the exchange has but at least with fixed wagering a better can tag along and get the price they want since they can wager early enough.
In the meanwhile, you want to bet with a smaller rake, perhaps not as good as your cartel, but lower? Wager through an ADW. Find the right one and you can get your takeout cut considerably.
In an attempt to "educate" me, you've missed my entire point. The advantage the cartel enjoys has nothing to do with their massive rebate; rather, it's in their UNFAIR ability to tap directly into the tote and see the "probables" at the last possible minute (and then wager accordingly, instantaneously). Nobody else can do this, and betting "manually" (as you suggested in your example) is not even remotely comparable. Not only can't you manually play the multitude of combinations you would need to cover the "overlays", you couldn't possibly IDENTIFY the overlays without having that direct access to the tote system. Like I said, the "liquidity" argument has been portrayed beautifully by The Meadowlands (and folks like yourself); but what good is liquidity if there's very little VALUE left in your wagers? Sure, the handle can look great on paper, in the short run - but in the end, lowering the payoffs on every "logical" combination can only serve to destroy the bankrolls of even the best players. It's all just an optical illusion, but one that too many (unsophisticated) people have bought into. I suppose kudos should be given to The Meadowlands for convincing players that they are "helping" them when in fact, they've simply allowed a select group to win MORE of their money.
No doubt it will make it harder for gamblers to get a good payoff because of the last minute computer wagering. One could argue it will require horseplayers to be even sharper than ever.
I would suggest exchange wagering is the best place for fans of horse racing to wager. With fixed odds, computer programming will be less efficient.
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