I am doing a little research this evening with a category tool which shows historical, and projected interest, in an item. You can also compare items with this tool, between parts of each category. When I compared sports interest to racing interest (standardized data) it gave me this:
One may think it is a malaise about something gambling related, rather than just the pure sport of racing. So I tried poker, just to see what would happen, in a cross category test:
Then I tried a bet seller, instead of a betting game.
And last, a sports related fan game:
There is growth out there, but racing is clearly having a tough time grabbing a slice of it.
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Have you considered the competition that racing has now compared with its heyday in the 50′s and 60′s. Than the main competition was Baseball and Boxing. Now we have the explosion of the NFL, the NBA, NHL, American Soccer as well as easy TV access to European Soccer, NASCAR, MMA, heavy TV coverage of PGA Golf, as well as Poker, slots, and of course Video Games (Madden NFL games etc). The pie has so many slices and the fan/viewer/player has so many options of where to go. Maybe the focus should be on carving the niche and keeping that niche relevant.
Robert, the game was more beatable in the 50′s, 60′s and 70′s which has something to do with the new competition that has sprung up and the fact that racing has failed to compete as a gambling game.
There are no visible winners out there as there are in poker. That is a big reason why poker is flying and horse racing is diving.
Just doing a little thinking out loud…..
The peaks each year in May for the Derby are really pronounced. It shows just how important the Derby is for the sport. They are going down year over year, but those are huge interest peaks any way you slice it.
I wonder what the Barbaro/8 Belles affect had on the peaks going lower, or it was just a simple trend.
I wonder what a triple crown winner would do for the graph. We had a chance in 08 for that, and it did nt have a huge effect, but maybe winning all three will do something for the trend.
I wonder what data has to do with it. Fantasy football is huge because everyone can play it, get data, learn, and it encourages you to be a part of the game. There is tons of data on poker et al. If there are more and more sites offering info, it encourages you to search for that info. We, as discussed many times, in racing do not have that. It is almost a brick wall at every turn. I would think the bounce rate for racing is very high. If people look for something value-added, they see it is not there, and do not come back to revisit.
Lastly, I wonder what ADW rules do to discourage racing play. If I watch the Derby in Arizona and want to become a member online to play racing, I will learn after searching and probably signing up to an ADW or two, that I am rejected and can not play. Same thing in Virginia. If I am in New York, and sign up for Twinspires, I will be booted out (I think), then I would somehow have to find NYRA’s online platform. Jumping through hoops to be a customer is not the internet of 2010.
d
Come on! Could you have picked any better three to compare. Compare it to Jai Alai; compare it to greyhound racing; compare it to checkers or chess; compare it to drive in movie theaters. Give me a break! You can make this as good or as bad as you want it to look. Your an idiot or just want to complain about racing. I don’t disagree we are on the downturn and will continue that way NO MATTER what we do. It is not about takeout, winners and losers and dragging your friends to the track. It is about every aspect of the sport. I worked at racetracks or horse farms for all but fours years of my life but none of my friends or family have any interest in racing. I play chess every chance I get but none of my friends play it. My 82 year Dad does. The game is on the downside. Just like Jai Alai was and just as poker will be one day. Life moves on and new things peak our interests and these things get passed down from generation to generation and are slowing replaced by other things that peak our interests. Horse Racing as wel knew it and currently know it is simply being replaced. Unless the game completely reinvents itself, all aspects from horse ownership, to breeding, to wagering, to the etc, etc, it will die a slow death as Jai Alai and Chess and checkers and drive in movie theaters. If you are going to do someting like this be fair! Think back to the 60′s and 70′s and compare it to things that were at their peak during those period. Not what is new, hip, exciting and growing. Compare apple to apples for God sake!
Hi Memchuck,
That is standardized data, so the data is apples to apples. You can choose to compare anything you like, if you would like to and disagree with the original graph comparing it to the sports category.
Jai Alai has done surprisingly well. Checkers and chess not as good. NFL quite good, Tour De France a little worse. The peaks on tennis are actually holding their own or growing, and we have heard that sport is on the way out (it reached a peak in 1980 with Borg McEnroe). So some old games seem to be doing well. Poker in itself is 200 years old, so I guess we can call it an old game too.
Regardless, thanks for the comment.
D
The brick wall “D” refers to is absolutely killing interest. PP’s should be free. ADW’s should be melting their servers by giving away data.
If I was a kid and wanted to do a report for school and infect all those nose miners with the gambling bug, I would have to pay for Secretariat’s and Spectacular Bid’s historic charts. Seeing how I’m 10 and my cash flow is limited, given the ridiculous takeout I have to overcome in this game, I pass on the racing report and instead another generation of Transformer followers is made.
Sad.