Irish Horse Racing

I certainly agree with the complaints of sparse information about the going at Irish tracks and there are some other valid points, but this bit is wrong:

Why improve our product when we make most of our money off someone else’s?

This seems fair and if the government can get this bill done without loopholes then it can only help racing. HRI chief executive Brian Kavanagh had this to say on the topic in 2010“
In 2001 the total betting in Ireland was approximately €1.3bn and it returned €68m to the Exchequer through betting duty. By 2009, betting had increased to €4.5bn and yet remarkably the return to the Exchequer had fallen to €31m. So a quadrupling of betting turnover was matched by a halving of the return to the Exchequer. While it is clearly unacceptable that the Exchequer should have to top up the Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund, it is extraordinary that this should happen against the background of significant growth in betting turnover”
While he makes a valid point and I think Irish Racing should get a cut from bets placed by customers on Irish racing, I don’t think they should get a cut from bets placed on UK racing, or a football match at Old Trafford. Yet that’s the situation at the moment, and the aim of the new bill. The turnover per race at the moment on Irish Racing, in an Irish betting shop, is only on a par with what’s bet on a UK race. When you consider they have 4 times the amount of races, and add in the amount bet on football, and other sports then Irish Racing probably only accounts for about 12% of total bet in of course shops. Yet Irish Racing gets a cut out of all of it. Isn’t it little wonder that they have no interest in improving the service they provide punters, when the UK product is what they make most of their money off?
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The writer is forgetting here that Irish punters are not the only ones who bet on Irish racing. Betfair turnover figures suggest to me that an average Irish race attracts roughly half the action of an equivalent British race. Given the relative size of the two countries Irish racing might be better off, therefore, if the only money going to it came from bets struck on Irish racing, provided that bets struck outside Ireland were included.
 
Bookmakers don't put enough money back into the sport, they keep casino and games profits well out of racing.
 
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The best of luck to him, his requests are reasonable, especially where going reports are concerned.
 
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