For photos from the Meadowlands contact Lisaphoto@playmeadowlands.com

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Why not Novelty Bets?

In anticipation of the upcoming Inter Dominion, TAB of Australia has released its opening odds for their novelty wagers.  In Australia, you can bet on the age and nationality of the Inter Dominion winner.   These are the opening wagers for the Inter Dominion which takes place on December 11, 2015.  As the race comes closer, TAB will offer additional novelty wagers as the field comes more into focus as they head to the preliminary legs.

While TAB can offer fixed odds wagering which North American tracks are unable to, the question is why can't North American tracks offer such novelty wagers?  Purists will poo poo the idea, but then, can we do any worse in attracting newcomers to racing?  These are perfect wagers to offer beginners as future wagering and even race day bets.  Using a race like the Meadowlands Pace, why not a wager as to whether the winner will be Canadian or American-sired?  Want to go further, you can offer wagering on the province/state the winning horse is sired from.  If you use a FFA race, you could offer wagers on the age of the winning horse?  What about the country of the winner of the Yonkers International?

Make no mistake, initially the pools would be small but if marketed correctly and given time to mature, these wagers could attract decent pools.  Our problem is we quickly jettison wagers which don't show instant success.  Obviously, you can't offer the wager on every stakes race, but imagine offering them on the marquee events in racing.

Novelty wagers?  What do we have to lose?

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