sunlineboy

This is why you take winter form with a grain of salt

The TAB's live scoring system is terrible. It consistently shows the wrong scores.

Seeing the way the Melbourne Cup Carnival is run compared to our "carnivals" makes us look very silly. We can't be taken seriously by the Aussies when our complete package is reminiscent of a backwater pub in the deep south.

No, I don't think there is much of a correlation. I can't imagine the % of sport/racing punters that use online casinos is very high. I think having legal casinos in NZ will only help the TAB.

I'm a few months out from releasing an NZ Casino website (informational), which will highlight the safe and soon-to-be-legal online casinos (casinobible.co.nz) As you said Mike - most of the bad ones target social media users - and most of those are scams. As NZ moves into a space where online casinos, the select 15 anyway, will be allowed to advertise, expect to see a lot of it in 2026 - and it will flood Sky Sport and YouTube advert spaces.

From my point of view, punters/viewers want to watch their horse at all times. Swapping from normal coverage to drone, back to normal, makes it rather annoying to see how your horse is progressing. It's not needed and it adds very little. Drones are only cool when shown post-race with a massive crowd cheering them home down the home straight, which isn't a common occurrence in NZ, let alone at Trentham.

Couldn't disagree more. The beauty of the Ellerslie hill was being able to see them climb and decline, which you don't get with a drone overhead shot... so I'm confused what you like about it.

As you would have all noticed, even accessing offshore bookmakers is now impossible without a VPN. I use Sportsbet for my form, so I've paid my $12 monthly just to be able to do my job. It's one thing to ban Kiwis from having accounts, but not even being able to see the competitors' better odds is tough.

Would you echo this opinion if the drone coverage had been at Te Rapa or elsewhere? You are biased towards Trentham, so just wondering why you thought having random drone shots throughout the race was a good thing. It's something that should only be used in post-production, never during a live race.

Why does all the weird stuff happen at Trentham? Horses run 4-6 seconds faster than average, hand-timed races, random drone footage mid-race, and now track staff not doing their job.

Do you think punters, knowing it's now even harder to make a profit, are still happy to continue betting at the same levels, especially with a sub-par product? I would imagine the betting numbers from Kiwis shrink drastically.

They have said how much Kiwis bet with offshore bookies, but have they mentioned what % of that was spent on NZ racing, and what % of that expected income would go to Entain and not the industry?

How much take is Entain's? How much of our punting money are they taking? It's a massive coup for them. Unbelievable really. Imagine Tab.com.au eliminating all other Australian bookmakers.

It's not the commentators job to know

Another nice win in Queensland. Autumn Boy and Central Coast could be very smart autumn types.

According to their interview on Newstalk ZB this morning, our odds will mirror those of Ladbrokes. So yes, our bookmakers in NZ (if you can call them that) are now obsolete.

To be fair, it costs money to house a horse, so if the horse is sound, may as well pick up some money. It's not like he has a breeding future.

That would be one way around it, but surely using a VPN is far too easy. It could be a case of trial and error.

nomates, 1mate, 2mate, 3mates etc?

I was also confused... Can I use Sportsbet when I'm in Melbourne? How will I be able to withdraw back to an NZ account? I think they're talking about overseas physical totes? Surely

Jockeys make mistakes, and unfortunately, those mistakes cost everyone involved. I'm sure @Michael Roustoby is feeling it.

That's a highly illegal practice, Irish. Not surprising from Unibet mind you. Keep contacting them and demand your money. It's yours.

Another leader at Ruakaka wins Patiently waiting for better Australian racing.

Tough one to stomach for sure. Our choice for racing in NZ today is a Heavy 6000 at Trentham where jumps riders don't know where to go, or an obvious leaders' bias at Ruakaka. This is the product punters money is going to be invested in btw. But yes, negative nelly over here.

I don't think offshore bookies will pay out to a registered NZ address, nor be allowed to accept a bet from said account.