Thursday Thoughts with Jason Beem Aug. 29, 2024

Jason discusses whether or not horse racing needs new bet types. 

A good Thursday morning to you all. Ready for a fun holiday weekend ahead of us as we shut the door on Saratoga and are closer to the finish line at Colonial and Del Mar. I’m not sure about you all, but the air just seems to shift after Labor Day for me. I know it’s still summer and still hot, but it just feels like a true season-changer. 

I wanted to write today about the question of whether or not horse racing needs any new bets. My answer is actually yes, but I want to start out with the ones we don’t need to add. I really don’t think we need any more gimmick bets. Stuff like we’ve seen in California in recent years like roulette or the new triple trifecta are all just terrible. They’re cutesy attempts at appealing to novice bettors, but we already have pools for that — it’s called show betting. Maybe just make show betting better like Oaklawn has done or get rid of breakage or lower the take? Make it so folks can actually survive playing those more novice bets. 

One thing I think a lot of tracks are very guilty of is that we push and promote our worst bets. Whether it’s a jackpot Pick 6 or something like that, tracks constantly promote their hardest and sometimes worst-priced bets for the customers to play. How often do you hear or see tracks really promoting exactas or just win bets or doubles? Once in a while, sure, but the terrible jackpot 6s and stuff like that certainly get more airtime and more print about them. Most novice and intermediate players have zero long-term chance at success at those tougher types of bets. 

Back to the original question. For the most part I do think we have enough bets. I mean there’s a pretty wide variety of options for players to go after during a given card or series of cards on a busy day. Pricing them correctly is of course the first step in any of this conversation, but I really would like to see more simple and functional bets. Lots of players I know used to love to play “heads-up” bets on the Kentucky Derby (G1) in Vegas. Emerald Downs used to do heads-up bets on their feature each day, but when it’s priced the same as the other bets, it just shows such a glaring price difference between us and sports. I do think heads-up bets, given the expansion of sports betting, could be very interesting for players, but it has to be priced correctly and aggressively. 

Also, not having interesting futures outside of a few of our big races seems a little crazy. Why can’t you make future bets on the Travers (G1) a week out or more or even the Breeders’ Cup races? Prop bets in general, again if priced right, could be so fun in racing: “Hey, I think Juan Hernandez can win over 2.5 races today — give me $20 on the over.” 

This isn’t outside-of-the-box thinking I’m sharing. And it’s just my opinion on the topic. I just can’t remember the last time a “new” bet was introduced that seemed both interesting and potentially desirable for a lot of players. Sometimes I think the people who do come up with the new bets show themselves not to be bettors, because if they were, they’d know that what they're proposing isn’t appetizing to most players. Instead they find out when there’s maybe $500 bet on a pool that they’ve spent much more than that on promoting or even programming the tote. 

So could we use some new bet types? Sure, if they’re appealing. I mean at this point we certainly have the verticals and horizontals covered. I mean we can’t be going to Super Hi 6s or Pick 10s. Although I’m sure some people are probably out there pitching those right now. 

Everyone have a great and safe holiday weekend!