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From what I know and from joining a few dots together: Some time ago the 'bright sparks' decided that the new site format should give punters only what they perceived to be the critical information needed to make a decision of which horse to bet on. They wanted to streamline the information provided so chose to implement a style more akin to the KISS style which works in some situations, but IMO, not on a TAB site. Punters, even the Joe Average's, tend to have their own 'systems' & they religiously stick to them, be they based on recent form, breeding, horses for courses, barrier draws, speed maps, gear changes, a combination of factors, etc. etc.. Many also want to know the prize-money, ownership etc. too. The 'picture' needs to be a complete one. The site also needs to react quickly once the punter decides how their precious dollars are going to be invested. To many clicks and lagging are a certain way to send punters to the overseas opposition, or to make them keep their money in their wallets in protest. Making it difficult to find & use any of the above (and a few more I've probably missed), all of which were easily viewed or used on the old site, was pure folly. To put a label on it one could call it "How to alienate your current customer base 101'. If it was working in a way that encouraged a new generation of punters into the game, then I would be willing to forgive some of the things that frustrate the hell out of me, but it fails here too. Then, the industry leaders have the gall to deny there are major issues, preferring to promote ' fairy tales' instead! Wow, they are seemingly intent to just keep on insulting Kiwi punters, spending to fix the stuff that should have been available & working at the launch, and to spin the line that the obscenely huge initial spend on the site is good value is truly beyond belief. Some fixes have been made since the inception, but at what extra cost? I am no expert in the IT field but I suspect that getting the base platform right from day one is critical to the success or otherwise of a site. A few tweaks will always be needed, but the scale of changes needed here are signs of a disaster being covered up. Unfortunately, what we have is a 'dog', cosmetically applying fixes might make it a 'prettier, marginally more user-friendly dog' over time, but it will never fix the underlying deficiencies. Rome's burning fiercely!

What is frustrating me more right now is the speed, sometimes it moves at the speed of a constipated sloth Especially if you have missed a race and go back to get a result, it just goes around and around in circles and you have to retry later. Not just this computer, as have tried it on others for same result. Along with info that should be there that isn't and the most protracted way of having to do what should be as uncomplicated as possible, I'm more than ever convinced it was developed by Monty Python's legendary " Village Idiot "

Logged into the TAB website this morning and was greeted with the following notice: Sorry for the inconvenience but we are currently running some scheduled system maintenance .We will do our very best to complete this work and have you back in the game by 8:00am Thanks, The TAB Team To be fair these happen at every website but given the amount of $ these clowns spent on this new platform you would expect it to be purring like a Rolls-Royce, making you coffee and asking how you would like your eggs. I still would love to see a breakdown of where/how the TAB spent this $40-50 million. i.e. which firms were paid and for exactly which services. Maybe one of the hundreds of the Petone leeches who clog up Racecafe's bandwidth could provide this information. Because, as someone who has worked in the industry for more than 20 years, I find it hard to believe the costs of a new platform could be anywhere near the figures being bandied around, let alone this one which is basically a piece of shit. There is plenty of evidence to suggest far from the rosy forecast of turnover and income increase Allen predicted would happen, that in fact both are down in both racing and sports, I suspect drastically in the latter. When they first launched the new platform., they did so with massive limits and very competitive percentages. Both have now been cut back to such crippling levels that far from being competitive, the TAB's offering is actually embarrassing. They have cut back percentages to obscene levels. Yesterday I saw some corner markets on football matches where the TAB was offering 1.80 and 1.83 for two way options. Before the new platform those prices would have been 1.87/1.87 at worst, and once it was launched 1.90/1.90. Now these have been cut back so dramatically it's basically hardly worth offering. Have the NZRB released any new figures regarding turnover/hold since the new platform was launched? If so what is the over/under of how long Allen will last? This new platform, like RFL, was his baby, and thus far his tenure has made Bonking Bayliss look like a superstar. At least he got something for the $$$ he wasted, and didn't borrow a shit ton of money to build the worst website on the planet.

to wake and work it out that the pretence of the above quote by the CEO to sell the Betting Platform to the Industry was never going to improve margins when you copy Sportsbet odds and don't factor into NZRB having to pay the NZ Sporting Codes and TAB agents a % of turnover and also profit. All good for Sportsbet to offer better odds when they pay nothing back to the NZ racing and Sporting codes. Up until just recently head to head bets were around 104% as opposed to 107% by the NZRB prior to the new Betting Platform eg sports line bets were $1.87 the pair but once Sportsbet started pricing that became $1.90 - $1.91. Bad sporting results for bookies was the excuse given for the loss in revenue, no it was bad management end of story. Great for the customer but not much good for the NZ Racing Industry with that house % advantage of 3-4 % to pay the sports codes and agents gone. The Sporting codes will still receive their entitlements but where will that lost buffer % come from now that's right the remaining profit paid to the NZ racing Industry. It took a few months to work it out but that house % advantage is back now no doubt because of reduced revenue from sports betting which to anyone with half a brain was always going to be the case. The Betting Platform cost tens of millions plus plenty more now in leakage caused by copying overseas bookmakers sports odds when the NZRB's costs are not mirrored. The NZRB is also now paying Sportsbet to price and trade. Profit is diminishing hello whats left? John Allen was on a panel to look at stopping leakage of money offshore, well well done John you added to the leakage problem due to your lack of understanding your betting product verse expenses. I hope at your Industry meeting at Ellerslie you man up and admit to this huge blunder which has once again cost the NZ Racing Industry plenty. I know you have no wagering knowledge John so exactly who lead you down the garden path? Opps I just noticed Blues game Saturday 105.9% and Crusaders 106% your still leaking John.

F'ing needs more than maintenance..... Tried to put 200/200 on my horse today at Hamilton in Victoria... The slack ar..es wouldn't take the bet... What???. 26/1... Took 100/100....Have in the mean time organised a couple of Australian sites that will take my money.... As it happens horse not in the money. BUT Who's running MY industry.... My future here is becoming very limited as I have bred here , raced here for over 40 years and now they could'nt give a f... Oh by the way, I have a business that exports horses to a country not far away ( Australia) who run maiden races for up to 35k which is almost listed races here... Come and talk as we are not far away , and I have trainers just awaiting reasonable Kiwi horses...... collair20@gmail.com Training is not that more in Australia and the rewards are much greater...... You can keep the books balanced but here unless your'e in the top 5% no chance..... Beecee.

Agree with you 100% Varro...time consuming piece of The old site was so much more user friendly with less clicks and more info!

I am so dissapointed and put off by the new tab website I have largely stopped betting now, and in turn watch bugger all racing. It just seems so much harder, more time consuming, and disjointed to read form and get information, i just cant be bothered anymore. I would hands down prefer the old site to this. there is still no stake info on the meeting info, i get you can go to extended form and pdf etc, but it shouldnt be that hard. So fair play to you Amy, the TAB is shit. its pretty much lost this punter. over n out

It doesn't rotate!!! Bugs me too, but the recurring theme here with this TAB app is 'USER UNFRIENDLY.' A great divide between the TAB, it's developers, and the punter. Spend 40-50 million and come up with a less competitive product than you started with. John Allen will deny this, the customers never right.

Kate Hawkesby: In my opinion Parliament's only real bully is Speaker Trevor Mallard - he needs to go What a shambles. As I said when he first did it, I am completely bewildered as to why Trevor Mallard chose to play judge, jury and town crier in one heady moment - which as it turns out is now nothing more than a defamation suit waiting to happen. Mallard, as Speaker of the House, was so far out of his lane I'm not sure what he was thinking. His time as Speaker has been controversial to say the least: he injects himself too much into the politics, he rarely shows the impartiality the job requires, he allegedly leaks stories to the media - basically he can't stay out of the fray. And now this. An alarmist assertion to the media, off the back of a bullying report, that there's a rapist on the loose in Parliament. READ MORE: • 'Bullied out': Man stood down from Parliament wants apology On top of that Mallard doubles down later that day alleging the "threat" had been removed from the building. That so-called "threat" hopefully just went straight to a lawyer's office. I hope he gets the recourse he so justly deserves. Everything about the way Mallard handled this, as I said at the time, was a disgrace. From terrifying parliamentary staff, to playing judge and jury, to using the word "rape", to making the assertions publicly via the media - the whole thing was a cluster. The man at the centre of all this, potentially the only 'victim' here now - the one branded a "rapist" - had an unsubstantiated historic complaint against him that he hugged a woman from behind. The alleged incident was investigated and found to be without merit. What's even more staggering in all of this, is that Mallard knew all of that. Yet he still decided to call it rape anyway. He still decided to alarm and inflame, to label and to essentially wreck a person's career. We now hear that the man at the centre of this debacle is reportedly "in a very dark place". So has a Government so hot on bullying, so hot on mental health, so obsessed with people's 'wellbeing', just railroaded, bullied and shamed an innocent man out of town? I don't even think we need to wait and see whether this meets the legal definition of a defamation suit or not, Mallard needs to go either way. He's out of his depth, unprofessional, he's proven that he cannot do the one thing the Speaker is required to do: be impartial and stay in his lane. The greatest irony being that the very man who called for a report on bullying, it seems to me, turns out to be the bully. The incompetence he's displayed here proves the only threat to Parliament is actually ... Mallard himself.

Recent NZRB Web Site maintenance purchase. Might be a little late all the same

Great Post! Sums up the attitude of the industry leaders across all the organisations!

You can put Lipstick on a pig Sobeit.....but it's still a pig....

With technology there have always been huge successes along with huge failures. That can be understandable. Allowing for the fact John Allen and the rest of the board would struggle to turn a computer on they still should have never have entered the OPnBet/PaddyP deal based on the figures versus risk info and options available. I get back to what the CEO of Betfair said several years ago. "we are not a wagering company we are a software company." That means in this day and age the structure and makeup of the old TAB & Racing Board no longer is relevant. More IT skills and experience at the entrepreneurial level are required e.g. someone like Derek Handley who the TAB turned away when he was 21.

If The Bostonian is to win the Stradbroke then he has to achieve the following: (1) Carry the heaviest winning weight in 27 years. (2) Become the first horse to win the Triple G1 Crown of the 10,000/Kingsford Smith/Stradbroke treble. If that’s not a NZ HOTY yardstick I don’t know what is. I hope he wins and he “will” look the winner at some stage. But will he be run over near the line by a lighter weighted rival? Don’t you love handicap G1 racing?!

good to see the Aussie raiders arrived this morning .that will be a relief. esp for my pick All Cashed Up who was 50/50 to fly home if any further delays.As mentioned my winning ,lol comp looks like this .. first picks=elle mac,amazing dream,one change,princess tiffany,turn it up second picks=All Cashed Up,cracker hill,gran chico. rougher but hopeful ..kings landing, and kayla marie.(backup for PT)

Hopefully they have burned the bloody thing and started again.....

could have been a shrewd move to switch to The Met Still 5 days out, however the weatherman is suggesting ....Addington will be chilly - max temp 9 degrees.Even a hail shower early on? Hopefully this will all pass before Saturday.....

I obviously view things differently to some people. The way I see it, Bostonian's form in Queensland is surely just franking Melody Belle's form in NZ. She beat The Bostonian every time they met in NZ, except when they were both out of the money in the Telegraph, when the classy Southern horses cleaned up. So nobody could surely deny she had the edge over The Bostonian. What he achieves when she isn't about surely only emphasises how dominant she was? The Bostonian won one race all season in NZ, a listed race, and got beaten in four group 1s, only placing once. Melody Belle won five group 1s and a group 2. Is NZ Racing so bad that we just pretend those races didn't happen, just because The Bostonian wins some races in Queensland without Melody Belle about? I have no particular interest in either of those two horses. I am just trying to introduce some logic to the conversation.

Barry, the only ones struggling with technology are the TAB !

Thank you all for taking part today - it's been fun and a fantastic way to see out Autumn racing. Well done to our winners ivanthegreat and Sir Castleton and a beaut effort, Thepaw and Kundalini. I will of course do a check of the points but if you think I've duped you out of a few please msg me and I'll remedy it asap That's it from me for a couple of weeks as I get some stuff done around the place before the colder months set in I'll catch you all again in the Winter season I hope!

Radio NZ report this morning says that over 1 million scool children from 110 countries took to the streets to protest about inaction by Govts on climate change. 1... how many countries in the world 2...What percentage does i million make of the total number of school children in those 110 countries. 3...Did students from China,Russia,India take part.

Another corrupt leftist propaganda theory debunked

We’re all gonna die! by WH Screen capture from Popular ‘Science’ Popular Alarmism Science has printed an article with the disturbing picture of a cloud. The header is, “There’s more carbon in the atmosphere now than there was before the dawn of mankind.” That, of course, is a straight out lie. Carbon is a solid in the forms diamond, graphite and graphene, none of which float around in the atmosphere. There might be a bit of soot from a fire but that settles fairly quickly. The footer to the cloud picture states, “Humans are saturating the atmosphere with CO2.” This is another straight out lie. For those who are visually oriented, this diagram breaks it all down into easy to understand segments: (I snipped this a few years back and it does not allow for the variability of water vapour in the atmosphere.) Take the entire atmosphere and represent it as 50 blocks Take one of those blocks of the atmosphere and that is the total amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The diagram indicates 2% but a more typical figure is 1% Divide that smaller block into 100 blocks. Four of those blocks (4%) represent the CO2 portion of the greenhouse gases. Total CO2 is, thus, 4% of 1% of the atmosphere or 0.04% of the entire atmosphere. Current ‘record’ measurement is 415 parts per million which is the same as 0.0415%. Of that CO2, the amount caused by human activity is just 3.4%. So the CO2 that humans are ‘saturating‘ the atmosphere with is 3.4% of 4% of 1% or 0.00135%. (Otherwise known, in scientific terms, as diddly squat) * The article then starts on the scare proper: Quote. More and more outright lies. There is absolutely no correlation between the rising CO2 levels and global temperature, as global temperatures did not get the memo and are currently not cooperating by rising at the required rate. There is absolutely no science to back the statement that humans are changing the environment at an unprecedented rate. There is actually no scientific proof that humans are changing the environment at all. * Here is another way to visualise the amount of man-made CO2 in the atmosphere. Imagine we could walk along 1 kilometre of atmosphere. The first 770 metres are Nitrogen. The next 210 metres are Oxygen. (980 metres of the 1 kilometre) The next 10 metres are water vapour. (10 metres left) 9 metres are argon. (Just 1 more metre) A few gases make up the first bit of that last metre. The last 41 centimetres of the kilometre – that’s carbon dioxide. 97% of that is produced by nature. Of our journey of one kilometre, there are just 12 millimetres left. That’s the amount of carbon dioxide that global human activity puts into the atmosphere. Of those 12 millimetres Australia puts in 0.18 of a millimetre, NZ puts in 0.007 of a millimetre. Less than the thickness of a hair in both cases, out of a kilometre. Or, for the final illustration: To the nearest whole seat, only one yellow Aussie jersey with the rest of Eden Park clad in black. Not really an Aussie ‘saturation’ is it?