EQUIBASE’S THOROUGHBRED RACING ECONOMIC INDICATORS
Equibase just released their economic indicators for the past year and unfortunately to no one’s surprise, virtually all indices are down. Do you think we will see another $1,000,000,000 drop in US wagering or have we hit the bottom in 2009? What are your other thoughts on the results displayed here? Inquiring minds want to know.
For December 2009
Indicator December 2009 December 2008 % Change
Wagering on U.S. Races* $748,685,618 $820,358,357 -8.74%
U.S. Purses $58,742,586 $60,123,263 -2.30%
U.S. Race Days 332 330 0.61%
Annual 2009 vs. Annual 2008
Indicator Annual 2009 Annual 2008 % Change
Wagering on U.S. Races* $12,319,129,673 $13,669,477,234 -9.88%
U.S. Purses $1,093,875,799 $1,158,616,930 -5.59%
U.S. Race Days 5,934 6,093 -2.61%
* Includes worldwide commingled wagering on U.S. races.
Tags: bradford cummings, equibase, Paulick Report, thoroughbred racing economic indicators, US wagering
January 6th, 2010 at 12:37 pm
In 2007 we reached $12.3B in early October, and that number now takes a full 12 months to hit. Wow.
January 6th, 2010 at 2:27 pm
So wagering dropped 9.88% but purses only fell 5.59%? It would be nice if horseplayers (the customer) had some sort of slot subsidy protecting them…
January 6th, 2010 at 7:02 pm
I wonder if any of the morons in charge of racing will finally do anything to grow handle when wagering is dropping a billion+ a year after total handle has fallen well into the single billions per year?
There will be a moment in time where wagering, almost overnight, falls off a cliff due to pool sizes shrinking to the point where only small bets can be made, racing charging too much for it’s product which causes every big bettor and most small bettors to leave because nobody can possibly win betting in quantity, and the quality of the racing product falls to such lows that it becomes unbettable.
If anybody doesn’t understand this, ask anybody who knows about racing in Alberta, Canada…..Their total handle dropped from a million a day to 100+K per day in less than a decade. The handle started dropping, racing product suffered, pools started getting smaller and then BAM! Handle fell off a cliff almost overnight.
It’s not a matter of if it will happen, it’s when it will happen if racing continues with the same leaders and direction.
January 7th, 2010 at 4:15 am
It’s like sitcom re-runs. You know what’s coming but you watch anyway. Racing needs to shrink (in terms of racing days) somewhere in the vicinity of 40 to 50% in order to raise the quality of the product to the point where there are robust field sizes and lots of competition in every race. The year-round racing experiment has failed. Does anyone really enjoy watching or attending the Aqueduct inner-track meet? Insanity! Venues that are receiving purse subsidies from alternative gaming need to reduce their takeout accordingly instead of acting like the purse bumps are some kind of entitlement and it’s now the handle from betting that is the gravy. Racing has done the “take it or leave it” routine one too many times where its customers are concerned; and, they’re choosing the backend of that proposition!
January 13th, 2010 at 2:09 am
There is apparently a lot to know about this. I believe you made some good points in Features also.