John Allen @ Ellerslie this Friday

[tasman man 11 979]

5 hours ago, lecithin said:

$45M extra profit to be distributed in the 18/19 season and $60M extra profit in the 19/20 season.

I'd suggest the strategy is to give inactive accounts a $5 free bet every month that when they spend it they become "active" clients.  He admitted this was "loss making" initially, but would be profitable when all these customers keep betting - time will tell if they do, but I doubt it.  They currently have 180k account customers and half of them are inactive and this is why he thinks they can double active customer by "re-engaging" with the account customers that no longer bet.  I think he's missing the point of why 90k of their customers don't bet with them and a $5 free bet every month isn't going to change this.

Yep it was just more of the same.  If you went to the meeting with no background and listened to him you'd think he's got it under control and great times are ahead.  Unfortunately we've heard it all before....

I agree he is an enthusiastic and knowledgable leader with genuine belief his plans will lead us to greater profitability.

I agree his goal to reignite dormant account holders is wishful thinking ...throwing $5 at irregular users is the game-changer they believe to change haits.

Interesting that his Elite Punters make up 1 1/2 % of punters but they make up 56% of total bet.The real big boys ,the V VIP punters are the ones going to the rugby and get the V VIP treatment cos of their huge spend.

The Fixed Odds platform ....automatic technology will increase options significantly ,more in line with major competitors .

Racefields legislation expected to pass thru Parliament before election.

So there are 3 x Silver Bullets combining to make up the expected increase in Distribution to racing....Fixed Odds technology ,igniting dormant and lapsed customers and  Race fields legislation.

Shaun Clotworthy on behalf of struggling trainers and Industry Participants spoke well and at length about costs,salaries and big number of folk earning over $100k. and he and others continually questioned JA 's salary of $600k.

These points were hammered and JA , said costs now were under control with very small increase in costs in current year ...0.2%.

JA definitely took  the criticism well and pretty much acknowledged   that NZRB were portrayed as a wasteful organisation with poor perception among Industry but he did say there was a lot of misinformation out here and clearly believes he's done well in his two years and on the right track and would expect to be replaced if KPI's not achieved with increased distribution...He emphasised CASH was all that matters.

Reading between the lines it is apparent that things got out of control and poorly run before he took over !

He handled the grilling from floor very well...I like the guy !

It was pointed out that there is a lack of collaboration and respect between NZRB and NZTR....this obviously needs to change/improve.

He's adamant he will deliver the results...Happy days are here again !

Ellerslie course looks great for the Derby ,it is an excellent race-track.!

 

[Leggy 4,096]

3 hours ago, tasman man 11 said:

Racefields legislation expected to pass thru Parliament before election.

Any detail on this? Submissions on the preliminary consultation closed in May last year and I understand raised a number of problems. As far as I know nothing further has been released by the DIA and no amendment Bill has emerged, so I'm thinking "before the election" is pie in the sky.

 

[Leggy 4,096]

Of the "silver bullets" you mention, I doubt this will contribute any significant gains. There is no evidence that the Racefields' gains will exceed the compliance costs as far as I can see, aside from the flawed working group report, which primarily said that the RB needed to be more competitive and improve efficiency. Did JA elaborate on how they were doing that? By the way, from the limited contact I have had, I quite like the guy myself. I still think the current strategies are totally inadequate and ill-founded though.

The NZTR / RB relationship is par for the course. NZTR is hapless and has no strategies or ideas to improve revenue  and code share which are in free-fall and they blame the RB and promote bright ideas like Triple Trio and Racefields' legislation (pretty much telling the RB what to do) while doing nothing for their own product.

The salaries cost argument is probably unsolvable because these are due primarily to the costs of RB's increased products and gross revenue which have produced very little in the way of increased distributable profit. The FO automated tech platform is the only hope I see from the existing strategies, but my guesstimate would be a 10-15m gain across codes, say $4-7m for TR by 2020 if the fall in code share continues.

It's a shame that instead of the rah rah road shows, they don't produce a detailed paper for stakeholders outlining the analysis behind the seemingly bs projections.

 

 

[Nerula 1,403]

Leggy that dead set useless racing minister is pretty handy to your burg. couldn't you go round and tune him up?

Jeez Oz has got there Racefields thing tithing the fleas so why is that not a template? And if it needs a fine tune then how long would that take.

If the Minister of Racing is down the pecking order then he is also the MPI and racing comes from the land, so thats a primary industry. The PM if from the land and he is a money man. Someone needs to tell him it election year and there is a voting block under stress and looking for an answer. (I see Winnie is going after the racing vote speaking at Rotorua)

People in this have got their finger right up their wazoo and the Bureaucrats are playing them.

[Ohokaman 5,851]

"It was pointed out that there is a lack of collaboration and respect between NZRB and NZTR....this obviously needs to change/improve."

One of the reasons Purcell is going I reckon....

 

 

[Midget 4,489]

I tell you what I find interesting.

The NZRB is always trying to inflate themselves, they inflate turnover by including pokies, they inflate staff numbers by including part timers and casuals, and you have to ask why ?

I suspect they've got the industry fooled into thinking they're a huge organization when they're really just supposed to be a smallish clearing house.

The truth is that they have less than 500 full time staff and their revenue is only about 400 million ( someone correct me if I'm wrong ).

I doubt they'd even be as large as a decent sized hospital like say Starship or Middlemore.

They definitely wouldn't be as large as say Fletcher's or most other public companies, but they certainly pretend they are and it's hard to understand why.

 

 

[trakdap 390]

"They definitely wouldn't be as large as say Fletcher's or most other public companies, but they certainly pretend they are and it's hard to understand why"

Probably to do with  Money Money Money. Are they not the overpaid brigade of the Corporates. Have to keep their profiles/ego's lubed.

 

 

[Midget 4,489]

Sky City has 3000 employees so they're 4 times the size.

It'd be interesting to compare CEO salaries across other similar organizations.

[slam dunk 1,317]

45 minutes ago, Midget said:

Sky City has 3000 employees so they're 4 times the size.

It'd be interesting to compare CEO salaries across other similar organizations.

Which has been done numerous times. Most recently   

 

[hedley 1,900]

Don't loose sight of the fact that the numbers of employees is way too inflated.

Why does everyone seem happy with the size of numbers employed!  ..it's a ruddy scandel the extent that those numbers have grown to in the last 6years or so.

[gubellini 4,010]

Midget the bulk of the NZRB staffers are front liners at their TAB outlets. Doubtless they are on near minimum wage contracts and are treated as poorly as the coal face participants of our racing industry. The NZRB hierarchy have a daily banquet while the rest of us fight over the crumbs and scraps from their table.

[Midget 4,489]

1 hour ago, slam dunk said:

Which has been done numerous times. Most recently   

 

They're public service salaries not private enterprise ( which is what I meant when I said similar organizations ) or as is the case with the NZRB, a state owned body corporate.

It's of interest though that the CE of the Serious Fraud Office is on 50% of what John Allen is.

[Ohokaman 5,851]

Talking about remuneration, if you want to see some eye watering numbers, have a look at this.

Mondelez, the Kraft offshoot that took over Cadbury and have been raping it ever since...the latest being the closure of the Dunedin factory next year kicking 350 out of a job...while getting rates relief and financial contributions from Council to run the Jaffas down Baldwin Street.......

[Wok Belly 4]

The FO platform buys the leadership another two years at least, notwithstanding the delays in integrating the systems and budgeting that will come with the project. Then what - profits increase overnight because there are more options, I suspect not. I've never thought their were too few options but more often looked at the short prices v overseas. I guess there will be some salary saving in the bookmaking team as a win though. 

[Midget 4,489]

24 minutes ago, Wok Belly said:

The FO platform buys the leadership another two years at least, notwithstanding the delays in integrating the systems and budgeting that will come with the project. Then what - profits increase overnight because there are more options, I suspect not. I've never thought their were too few options but more often looked at the short prices v overseas. I guess there will be some salary saving in the bookmaking team as a win though. 

the real problem is migration from tote to F/O, they never come back and all the data says it's inevitable.

We're basically using racing tote revenue to create something that'll destroy racing tote revenue.....a bit like a turkey voting for an early Christmas... 

[rdytdy 5,343]

 

[slam dunk 1,317]

John Allen has got one thing right. The psychological benefit of having the premier racetrack or any track in  the background. 

Which kind of begs the question why are racing head offices in Petone with the Petone railway Station in the background when Ellerslie is a brilliant place to create a racing "city"  

Or at least it probably was until the land agents moved in and cajoled the club into housing etc.

p.s. agree that moving to fixed odds away from tote is a risk.

[von Smallhaussen 3,226]

just like R80 toilet paper

[Midget 4,489]

He can talk though, you can't deny him that !!

[toolittletoolate 80]

Yes but can he walk though? 

[Ohokaman 5,851]

Unnamed trainers somewhere, after.....

[Fartoomuch 1,376]

23 minutes ago, Midget said:

He can talk though, you can't deny him that !!

Actions speak louder than words comes to mind Midget. How successful was he at NZP or MFAT

[Midget 4,489]

I was only suggesting that he speaks well and that he's convincing, nought more

[Tauhei Notts 1,413]

The words "nought more" should have been put in bold type.

[Fartoomuch 1,376]

42 minutes ago, Midget said:

I was only suggesting that he speaks well and that he's convincing, nought more

Just what Glenda needs given her performance and those of the rest of JA's board