Baz (NZ)

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

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.

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 "

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.

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.
 
      

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

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?!

Why don't we create an award for NZ International Horse Of The Year along side... NZ Horse Of The Year?

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

Who the hell in Aussie would try opening an account with the NZ TAB?   No one to block!

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. 
 
 

Best by a clear mile baz is Sportsbet, great offers and there 1 boost a day is a higher % than the others. Bet365 & Ladbrokes will ban Kiwis winning in short time.
Easy withdrawal and back in bank account in 24hrs.
Plus there odds are at a smaller % for NZ Racing.
 

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

Who the hell in Aussie would try opening an account with the NZ TAB?   No one to block!

Ellerslie R5 Saturday 25 May 2019. Piazzo D'Oro Auckland Futurity Stakes.   Murray Baker and Andrew Forsman had 5 runners in this very important( historically)  1400m  two  year old race.
Rhaegar       30 FF Long Jack    4.4 FF Showbeel    18 FF Selenlion     21 FF Custom Cruiser 28 FF   Long Jack had the fastest last 600m in the race ( 35.12)  . That was not good enough to beat his stablemate Rhaegar. Now this is why Baker is a true legend and Master Trainer.  He trialed Rhaegar at Waipa  just  5 days before Saturdays race   over 850m with Matt C  on. Ear Muffs and Blinkers. He won that Trial.                   My thoughts were that Rhaegar( by Pluck )  would be a Game of Thrones player next season.Surely he couldn't beat Long Jack  in The futurity. Fantastic result for Murray and Andrew.   Disclaimer :  I have never owned a Pluck yearling the sire of the winner, Rhaegar I Have never watched " Game of Thrones" .for 45 minutes in total. Murray Baker bought me a Red Wine in the Group One Bar Cambridge. He did this three times  over a period of 3 years. I have never sold Nasal Strips to Murray Baker. I never send Murray  Txts about his son's Bjorn's wins                 

Back to The Bostonian, this from punters.com.au
The Bostonian will aim to complete the sprint trebleImage: Michael McInally The Bostonian is set to carry topweight of 57kg in Saturday week's Stradbroke Handicap (1400m) when the Tony Pike-trained galloper shoots for a clean sweep of the Brisbane Group One sprints. 

The four-year-old was a shock winner of the Doomben 10,000 at odds of $41 before winning Saturday's Kingsford-Smith Cup at $10. 

Osborne Bulls, who finished a fast-finishing second to The Bostonian in the Doomben 10,000, has been allocated topweight of 58kg in the Stradbroke, however the Godolphin gelding is already in the paddock. 

Leading Queensland hopeful Tyzone will carry just 53kg with Tommy Berry to partner the Toby Edmonds-trained five-year-old.  

Other notable potential Stradbroke runners are Trekking (54kg), Victorem (51.5kg), Despatch (54.5kg) and Outback Barbie (49.5kg).

I reckon  Tom Melbourne red hot favorite to find one too good .

Best performance by a NZ trained horse outside of NZ. Good idea. Another category could be best performance overseas by a NZ breed horse, which would cover Beauty Generation.

I would hope that awards such as these were only given out when outstanding performances merited such an award.  I wouldn't like to see their merit watered down by the awards being annual, where mediocre performance may be rewarded just because the trophy has to be handed out.

Why don't we create an award for NZ International Horse Of The Year along side... NZ Horse Of The Year?

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

Great to see a really civilised, well thought out discussion on here with no personal attacks. Exactly how this site should be.

Yes offcourse can't blame the new website. Getting paid $50M must be hard fixing the web website whilst skiing and dining in St Moritz.