Betting Exchanges , be careful what you wish for

[Boscar Obarra]

Interesting article.

http://www.osga.com/artman/publish/article_9212.shtml

 Next to last paragraph on how Euro bookmakers are offering \'best odds guarantees\'  Sounds tempting.

[sekrah]

I\'m against it.  Fraud and race fixing will become even more prevelant as it would be much easier and profitable to pull off with exchange betting.

[Topcat]

The author\'s done a lot of good work for a lot of years, but he missed one significant boat, here.   The ability of insiders to lay against horses under their control by enlisting undercover allies remains a wholly-unappetizing feature of the business model.

[miff]

Some form out there now at certain sites. Liquidity poor and cap small.NY/CALI approached re selective exchange betting on say Graded stakes races. Regretfully, the Clueless Clowns and the politicians will decide, Federal and State legislation needed.

Might be an opportunity with all the dead money out there.


Mike

[miff]

Panel: Exchange Wagering Changes Everything


As exchange wagering edges closer to its American debut, regulators will have to deal with many makeovers of existing laws.
               
According to a panel assembled for the National Council of Legislators from Gaming States, exchange wagering will change everything.

Each racing state will need to revise its regulations to find ways to make this latest innovation in wagering work, the panel said. But sweeping and rapid changes are needed to halt racing\'s decline.
   
"Horse racing is in trouble," said Ed Martin, president of the Association of Racing Commissioners. "There are tons of people whose livelihoods rely on this industry. This industry has to adjust to the technological revolution."
               
Meeting June 18 in the California wine country town of Napa, legislators from eight states focused on "States and Gaming Choices: Which Way to Go?" The exchange wagering panel followed an earlier in-depth discussion at the NCLGS's winter session.
               
California and New Jersey are the only states so far to approve exchange wagering, which operates more like a stock exchange instead of the current pari-mutuel system. Online, technology connects bettors within instants.
   
In concept, it allows bettors to wager one-to-one in real time on all sorts of race-connected propositions, including  the outcome of a photo finish, an inquiry or head-to-head match-ups. But like advance deposit wagering or other innovations, it must be approved state by state.
               
"Hopefully, it will help save horse racing," said moderator Rep. Jim Waldman of Florida. "It's a new form of gaming that allows you to bet on almost anything. You can bet on losers."
               
Stephen Burn, CEO of TVG/Betfair, said his company will make it simple to start.
               
"We're looking in the U.S. to be very conservative," Burn said. "We'll start with win, place, show."
               
Other aspects of the service will be added gradually, he said.

Betfair, the United Kingdom's exchange wagering giant, hosts about 5 million transactions a day. In 2009, Betfair bought the Television Games Network and acquired a California foothold with TVG's advance deposit wagering operation and television network.

"I'm one of the few zealots left in Betfair that loves horse racing," Burn said. "I'm trying to do something to transform the racing industry."

In concept, exchange wagering was legalized in California last year with a May 2012 target date for its debut. This summer, the California Horse Racing Board will hammer out proposed rules and regulations for how it will work in this state with a possible first reading in August, Burn said.

"I know it works," Burn added. "We have the proof to show; we're used by millions of people. We know what we're doing. We just want a chance."

Dr. Rick Arthur, the CHRB's equine medical director and another panelist, emphasized that the industry needed to be as transparent as possible if it were to make something like exchange wagering work while protecting the integrity of the sport.

"Exchange wagering allows you to bet on a horse to lose," Arthur said. "That's an entirely different perspective on racing."

Medication is part of that equation. Arthur discussed the International Race Day Medication Summit and the need for uniform regulations in the nation's 38 racing states. A ban on race-day medications would be a necessity for exchange wagering, he added.

"People think there are drugs to give a horse to make it go faster; that's actually hard to do," Arthur said. "But it's easy to give horses drugs to go slower."

Dennis Dowd, a horse owner and former New Jersey racing regulator representing pari-mutuel technology company Longitude, suggested using technology to create a single wagering pool instead of separate pools for each bet, another possible way to grow the total handle. But such a change would need laws to be revised in almost every racing state.

[plasticman]

Why is Rick Arthur sticking his 2 cents into this discussion, what does he know about gambling?

Many people believe that exchange wagering will allow more races to be tainted/fixed or whatever word you want to use but that just isnt the case. Its like the NCAA wanting Vegas to ban gambling on college sports, they don\'t realize that there\'s always going to be gambling and Vegas acts as a \'watchdog\' (sort of) for fixed college athletics. Personally, i believe that the higher ups in college athletics would support gambling if they were getting a piece of the pie. Since they\'re not, its a BAD THING MAN.

What if you wanted to bet against Uncle Mo in the Wood Memorial but didnt really have much of an opinion on the other runners? With exchange wagering, you could have made money betting against him.

Its pretty simple actually. People who stand to benefit from exchange wagering love the idea and concept, and people who don\'t stand to profit from it hate the idea and want to condemn it.

[Lost Cause]

Has anyone here done exchange betting?  Any comments on it?  More than interested in playing against bad faves without having to pick the one to beat them..

[Frank]

Lost Cause,
I\'ve been playing at Betfair for many years. My experience with them has been outstanding. Most of my plays are against bad favourites but there are also excellent alternative prices available on big race days such as Breeders Cup.
I believe that betting exchanges represent an opportunity to help revive a dying sport.
Frank

[Boscar Obarra]

This whole business of the ability to \'bet horses to lose\' , as a threat, is really quite ludicrous.

 You already bet horses to lose.

 You even bet on horses to run worse than second or out of the money.

 The only new things the bookmaker model brings to the table are fixed odds and convenience.
 
  If there\'s s  fear that the ease of betting against a horse will tempt more insiders to stiff their horses, well, maybe. But the opportunity has been there , and no doubt exercised, all along.

[plasticman]

On that note BO, its the racing industry\'s job to \'police\' the races and make sure that every rider/trainer is giving \'full effort\' all the time. Since we have many camera angles of videotape, it shouldnt be hard to sniff out which riders are not trying.

With betting xchanges on the horizon, jocks who normally don\'t ride their hide off for every board spot are going to have to rethink their lackadasical ways. These jocks need to be told that if you stop riding to the wire and miss a board spot your name could show up in the newspaper as a race fixer . (why that doesnt happen now is anyone\'s guess)

[Lost Cause]

Thanks Frank,
Is it as complicated as they were stating in this article when you get started or do they just assume we are idiots?

[miff]

Speaking of betting, as the Clueless Clowns debate irrelevant nano positives/lasix use for Public Relations reasons, Rome continues to burn!


Twinspires, XpressBet see betting declines for first quarter
By Matt Hegarty

Handle through two of the three leading national account-wagering platforms in the United States declined in the first quarter of 2011 compared with the first quarter of 2010, according to figures from the platform operators and regulators in Oregon, where the platforms have betting hubs. The decline signals a contraction in the account-wagering market for perhaps the first time.

Combined with a slight increase for the third large account-wagering operator, the overall 7.9 percent decline is the first significant quarter-to-quarter drop for the leading operators in the account-wagering sector, which has been the only growing component of the national wagering market over the past several years. The decline far exceeded a 1.8 percent contraction in race days during the quarter, and was a significant component in an 8.5 percent decline in total wagering on U.S. races for the first three months of the year.

Overall, handle through the three dominant account-wagering platforms was $365.5 million in 2011, compared with $397 million in the first quarter of 2010, according to the figures. The figures do not include totals from account-wagering platforms that do not have a hub in Oregon, but those operations, such as the New York Racing Association's NYRA Rewards account-wagering service, typically serve local markets.

The decline was most strongly influenced by handle figures through the leading account-wagering company, Churchill Downs Inc.\'s Twinspires.com, which merged with Youbet.com in the fourth quarter of last year. In the first quarter of 2010, combined handle through the two companies was $201.1 million, according to Youbet records and the Oregon Racing Commission, while in the first quarter of 2011, handle through Twinspires.com was $178.1 million, for a drop of 11.4 percent.

Rohit Thukral, the president of Twinspires.com, said through a Churchill spokesperson that the company believed the declines were related to overall weakness in the parimutuel market, citing reduced race days and smaller field sizes. Thukral also said that customers of Youbet who were moved to the Twinspires service when the two companies merged were in an "adjustment period" as they learned the features of the Twinspires website.

Handle through XpressBet also dropped on a quarterly basis, dipping 3.7 percent from $50.9 million to $49 million, according to the Oregon records. XpressBet, owned by MI Developments, has had declines on a quarterly basis in the past. The account-wagering platform is scheduled to be transferred to a company headed up by Frank Stronach on June 30, along with the other racing and gambling assets owned by MI Developments.

The only major account-wagering platform to post a quarter-to-quarter increase in wagering was Television Games Network, with quarterly handle of $138.4 million during the first quarter of 2010, compared to $136 million in the first three months of 2010, or a gain of 1.8 percent. TVG is owned by the British-based betting-exchange operator Betfair.

In total, horse racing account-wagering operators with hubs in Oregon had total handle of $395.2 million in the first quarter of 2011, compared with total handle of $420.2 million in the first quarter of 2010, a decline of 5.9 percent.

[Frank]

Lost Cause,
Once I got past the language differences between their English and ours it wasn\'t complicated at all. From what I\'ve been reading they will make the necessary changes so that us not so smart North Americans can understand.
Frank

[TGJB]

The ability to bet horses to lose definitely does change the landscape and creates opportunity for mayhem. HOWEVER-- the advantage of exchanges such as Betfair is that a) it\'s easy to track bets and see that someone placed an unusual one, and b) bettors have to show serious ID, so the bets are traceable.

If anyone wants to take the time to find the story about the tennis player who quit in the middle of a match a couple of years ago you\'ll see what I mean.

In what I think was Dick Francis\' last book he touched on this a little.

[magicnight]

Davydenko. Russian tennis player. Betfair reported to the ATP (per its agreement) that 10X the usual volume was bet on this match. Per Wikipedia, most of the big bettors were identified, and all bets on the match were cancelled.