Horseshoe Indianapolis Sees Positive Trend in Horse Betting Handle
Transcript
00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 All right, and let's close it out and talk some horse racing,
00:06 which, Jim, of course, you could read all about over
00:08 at LegalSportSupport.
00:09 Jim is their horse racing expert.
00:11 And actually, some positive news for horse racing
00:13 here in at least one state in the country.
00:15 I know it's been going down virtually everywhere
00:17 in terms of their handle, but let's talk about some good news
00:20 here for horse racing, Jim.
00:23 Yeah, so Horseshoe, Indianapolis,
00:26 which I think in the grand scheme of things,
00:29 people would refer to as a quote, unquote, "smaller track"
00:34 if you look outside of the Saratogas and Belmonts
00:39 of the world.
00:40 And you look at those tracks that
00:44 might be on that second tier.
00:47 And that's where I would place Horseshoe, Indianapolis.
00:52 But they've actually been one of the only tracks in the country
00:58 so far this year to show a positive trend
01:03 in their overall horse betting handle.
01:07 Overall, the last couple of months,
01:09 nationwide handles dropped.
01:12 It's right around 7% year over year in July,
01:16 which there's a lot of factors that go into that.
01:19 Like we talked about last week, Craig,
01:21 with the weather up here in Saratoga
01:23 and a variety of other things.
01:26 But Horseshoe, Indy has been able to increase their handle
01:31 year over year, which has been quite impressive.
01:33 And I spoke to some people there a couple of weeks ago.
01:36 And really, it's not really rocket science
01:43 what they've been able to implement there.
01:46 A lot of horse player-friendly changes,
01:49 gathering feedback from the people on track
01:52 or the people watching their simulcast feed,
01:55 saying, hey, can we get more of this sort of graphical element
02:00 built into the broadcast?
02:01 Can we get this sort of menu of wagering?
02:05 Eliminate these types of bets because they're not
02:10 advantageous to the gambler.
02:13 And I guess the beauty of being a quote unquote smaller track,
02:18 like I said, is that you kind of have the flexibility
02:21 to make these changes.
02:23 And there's not a ton of resistance to them.
02:26 So a lot of those changes have been implemented.
02:30 And I think they're quite pleased, obviously,
02:33 that the betting handle has increased there
02:37 because of those changes.
02:39 And I'll check back in with them towards the end of the year
02:43 and see what else they've got on the horizon.
02:45 But all things considered, they're
02:47 a lone bright spot in what's otherwise
02:50 been a downward trend for horse betting
02:53 here in the last couple of months.
02:55 (upbeat music)
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