RaceCafe..#1...Tipsters Thread.... Share Your Fancies For Fun...Lets See Who The Best Tipsters Here Are.
Barry Lichter

TAB now so broke it can't use the betting platform properly

Recommended Posts

Surely it is time for "name and shame". Everyone is randomly blaming John and the Shot-putter for this, and they must ultimately take the blame, although it doesn't seem to have done either of them much harm, they just walk into other jobs. Perhaps Barry could dig up some background to these disastrous decisions that are destroying the industry. As he points out it is Racing that is bearing the brunt of this. I don't notice any rugby grounds or basketball stadiums being shut down and sold off to fund the shortfall. All care and no responsibility for sports, while Racing gets sent broke. Who were the big pushers of this disastrous policy? Was it driven from the top,  or from others and the top was just too stupid to see what a disaster it would be?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I know RITA inherited this mess but they have hardly been pro active in getting costs under control . Up until last week they hardly made a wimper about restructuring , then bang more announcements than the govt document drop of 2 Fridays ago , and then the use of COVID as having been the destroyer . But of course nobody from top level got the chop , OH ! but they are currently under review , not holding my breath . These are the guys that were in large the ones advising J A and helping him manage his grand plans . Why weren't they one of the first under the microscope , not just in last weeks announcements but surely they should've been put under the blow torch as soon as RITA came into effect . No RITA didn't create this mess but they must hold responsibility for allowing the disease to continue unabated .

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, We're Doomed said:

Surely it is time for "name and shame". Everyone is randomly blaming John and the Shot-putter for this, and they must ultimately take the blame, although it doesn't seem to have done either of them much harm, they just walk into other jobs. Perhaps Barry could dig up some background to these disastrous decisions that are destroying the industry. As he points out it is Racing that is bearing the brunt of this. I don't notice any rugby grounds or basketball stadiums being shut down and sold off to fund the shortfall. All care and no responsibility for sports, while Racing gets sent broke. Who were the big pushers of this disastrous policy? Was it driven from the top,  or from others and the top was just too stupid to see what a disaster it would be?

https://www.rita.org.nz/leadership-team

Should be a very significant explanation from this lot, barring McKenzie who walked into the mess. I believe the rest stay employed after this fiasco?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, Huey said:

https://www.rita.org.nz/leadership-team

Should be a very significant explanation from this lot, barring McKenzie who walked into the mess. I believe the rest stay employed after this fiasco?

I appreciate he didn't create it but as i said should have been on top of costs right from the start , he's not there as a volunteer .

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

You can blame the modern toys if you like, but the problems go back way further than that. Back before we even had betting on the Internet and live TV covering everything from everywhere  

I feel the problem is a lack of horses, particularly good horses, that attracted the interest and therefore the betting money. It was one big circle, as big race meetings attracted big fields and big crowds, which in turn attracted big newspaper coverage and even some TV coverage of our bigger races, pre Trackside (or Action TV as it was originally called from memory). How did we survive with just radio? And just local radio at that? Just fine, by comparison, it seems.

We survived when living in Auckland and trying to tune in to the night trots at Addington on Christchurch radio (there was no chance during the day, and coverage at night was patchy at best). We survived without betting on the Dubbo greyhounds and with having to put bets on huge amounts of time before a race through the TAB. What was it, 20 minutes for an each way bet? An hour before a double? I can't quite remember now. And didn't we have to cash them back a at the same TAB? And you couldn't cash an on course ticket elsewhere, so if you had the late on course treble still live you had to stay to the end of the night. But we survived, and by comparison to today racing flourished. 

One would of thought that as things have progressed over the years, Jet Bet, Phone betting, internet betting, bet right up to race jump etc etc, the ease of it all would have made racing more attractive to more people. But the opposite has been the case. For a long time now. 

The product we are left to be betting on from July onwards, is complete garabage by comparison. And while we can blame Covid-19 for the current "no racing" situation, it is far from being the reason we have very little left. Newspaper coverage of racing in Auckland was virtually non existent before this all started. And what we did get paid as much attention to the Wollongong dogs as it did a Group 1 meeting at Ellerslie. But then, at that Group 1 meeting, there's would be small fields and very little interest anyway, partially because so little is being done to generate interest. But then you need a product to promote, and currently, in Auckland a time least, while we do have promotable venues for both Galloping and Harness, we have such small fields the racing isn't attractive from either a betting or a spectacle point of view. There's no atmosphere on course, unless you're in with the young pissheads who seem to be the target audience of clubs today. Can't make money out of the racing, so we'll make it out of the booze instead. That'd be fine if the racing was still good. But it's not. Less fans make for less betting, which makes for less money and less horses. Less horses makes for less fans, less betting and so on and so forth. I used to bet more, much much more, in the 70's, 80's and 90's than I do today. And the newly proposed wall to wall TV racing turns me off completely. On course, with no form, no people and manned-betting counters even more so. The cold surgical experience of attending a race meeting will be like attending a funeral, a crematorium or a morgue  who wants that?

I have no idea on any solutions. Big prize money has helped when the Govt has helped fund that in the past, but it's not sustainable. The big money never hangs around long enough to encourage more breeding. And even if there was, so many exit to HK, Aussie and Singapore we're  left with virtually the dregs. And those that aren't, end up virtually their entire career racing in Australia. Hell, some don't even come back here to spell anymore. Bigger fields make for bigger dividends, less collects perhaps, but when you get a collect it gives you a lot more to put back through the tote.  

Then there's the 101 other things attracting the so-called "leisure dollar". Racing appeared on its last legs when there was such a thing as the leisure dollar. Covid has now changed that situation so that leisure dollars are going to be in short supply. Somebody pulled the plug out of the full bath many many years ago, and you no what happens when the bath is almost empty, right? Things spiral much more rapidly until they eventually disappear, for good....... 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

9 minutes ago, Baz (NZ) said:

Glenda-web.jpg?itok=vnAMTRQL

 

 

 

 
 

New Zealand Racing Board chief executive John Allen

 

 

 

 

 

There's two names racing fans cringe at , then low and behold down the bottom , just when you think we couldn't dredge any deeper into the bottom of the barrel , we get Nathan Guy . There's a triumvirate of success right there . The racing gods were really pissed when they put those 3 together for us , a recipe for success any day of the week . They could run Microsoft into the ground .

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

We were told that jetbet was so old the website needed replacing. Well when jetbet was introduced to NZ the world wide web had not been invented and the internet was more than 10 years way. Much of the programming on the old web site was state of the art so John Allen and co were lying or just plain ignorant. The back end processing along with the terminals could have been reorganized without changing the website. In the end the terminals stayed the same and a worse web site came about.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

On 5/18/2020 at 2:30 PM, Barry Lichter said:

Anyone miss this?

217506736_oldwebsite.thumb.jpg.e2de805e9fabef8cebe081ce9e666f26.jpg

A definite 'Yes' from me, Barry.

I especially liked the bottom line on that page that scrolled the latest results in an easy-to-read 'O darn, my nag ran unplaced' format.

And the green-and-white was way easier on my aging eyes than the often-hard-to-distinguish new blue-and-white format that regularly has me squinting to make out the balance on my account.

 

 

 

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.