Racing Post Charge

Gamla Stan said:
Got the majority of my bets for tomorrow sorted but I'll try again in the morning to try and see if Record Breaker really is a mental 18/1 shot!
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Seems to have improved markedly in his last 3 runs since they fitted the blinkers, and could still be ahead of the handicapper
 
Site closed for maintenance/updating 10pm last night to 3am this morning. In the interim, all the racecourse names have vanished from the results cards!

I'm merrily looking up a horse's record and can see that it ran in a handicap chase on 1st May 2009 but there is no indication of where the race actually took place.

Hopefully its just a temporary blip but it's a bit time-consuming to have to keep going back to a horse's form profile to find out where it went next.
 
Enhancements and changes to your website


By Racingpost.com staff6.42PM 22 JUN 2009
We are continuing to invest heavily in Racingpost.com to bring you the best racing website in the world and June 23 saw yet another flurry of improvements:
  • All race videos (including archive videos from the end of 2008) now play in Flash format, so you can now watch them in the Firefox, Safari and Google Chrome browsers as well as in Internet Explorer
  • There is an enhanced Tipping section, which now features Trading Post Extra - an exciting new service in which our top tipsters take a look at the morning markets to advise bets for exchange players - as well as old favourites Training Centres and Big-race Trends, as appear in the newspaper
  • We have brought back a Racing Post tradition - Diomed is the all-new at-a-glance tipping service, found on the cards
  • We have improved navigation from the racecards, giving you more customisation options
  • We have extended the News Archive so that it goes all the way back to 1998
  • There are numerous speed and functionality improvements, which, from your feedback, we're sure you'll appreciate
You will also notice that parts of the website now require you to log in to access the content. This is because we are preparing for the launch, in July, of our Members' Club. If you do not already have a racingpost.com username and password you will need to register (it is free and fast) before you will be able to log in to the site. Once we introduce Members' Club you will need to purchase a membership to continue to access the content that currently requires you to be logged in to view it.
Racing Post is committed to delivering exemplary insight and analysis, and to keeping you up to date with racing and betting news from all over the world. We do our research properly. We don't cut corners. However, to sustain this level of service requires significant investment and resource. With that in mind, we will shortly be introducing asmall charge for those of you looking for the most in-depth information and data on our website.
For most visitors the launch of Members' Club means no change. You can still access over 90 per cent of the website completely free of charge. But we're sure you're interested to know what content will become part of the Members' Club, so we've listed the key features below. Many you will already be familiar with, but there are also some new and enhanced features. More details, including about the different subscription packages available, will be released soon.
From July the following content will be accessible to members only:
Analysis and data
Spotlights
Postdata
Racing Post Ratings (RPR) tables
Topspeed tables
Selection boxes
Post-race analysis
Raceform Notebook
Analysis of winning times
Previous winners' tables
Horse statistics
RPR and Topspeed ratings on horse pages

Bloodstock
Horse sales
Horse relatives
Sales search
Information
Quotes from trainers
Racing business news
News archive
Tipping
Pricewise Extra
Trading Post
Trading Post Extra
Training Centres
Big-race Trends
In-running pointers
 
Just about everything useful to be charged for then.

So where are the racecourse names on the results sheets?

Horse statistics - does that mean a horse's actual form sheet, or it's numerical profile?
 
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The onus has to be on the BHA to stop furnishing expensive consultants with loads of money to inanely blather on about flower pot men, and launch their own free to access site or risk losing thousands of casual supporters.

At the moment the BHA seem to be obsessing with attracting new followers whilst not recognising the threat to the existing casual base. Certainly it has implications for the likes of myself who might just say sod it, and draw stumps on racing. It's not that important to me after all
 
It just shows what a misplaced sense of importance they clearly attach to their editorial input. I still maintain that were they to throw raceform interactive in with the package they might persuade more people to sign up. I could certainly consider it under such circumstances, but my inclination is to simply walk given current circumstances.

I wouldn't have enough faith the depth of sporting lifes database which is also frustratingly slow. ATR would be a possibility. I'm slightly surprised (well I'm not really) that a partnership of bookies don't put something together for even if it stops 5% of their client base turning their backs on racing it would have to be worth it.

Another thing that occurs to me would be group registrations? in much the same way as one can pick up a discarded copy hard copy of the paper without paying for it? That would be one for our IT boffins to advise on I suppose
 
They are planning to charge for trainer quotes, too - you can get them (and in more depth) for free on the Life's site - just be quick to pick them up.
 
Sporting Life is a much better source for news (& faster) than the RP.

They really have no clue if they are about to start charging for a woeful product. I can't imagine many will pay.
 
Hamm said:
Sporting Life is a much better source for news (& faster) than the RP.

They really have no clue if they are about to start charging for a woeful product. I can't imagine many will pay.
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The SL's very poor betting forecast lets the site down.
 
Gareth Flynn said:
I wonder if Timeform/Betfair would try and compete with them somehow.
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I don't think it's a competition issue and wouldn't be seen as such, so the motivation would seem to lie in keeping the casual supporter interested and not losing them. Those who would seemingly possess such a mandate would be the bookies or the BHA. It's going to need someone to instigate it though, and since the BHA currently has its 'eye off the ball' and is indulging Brian and Ben as it's top priority it won't realise what a void is potentially being left until it's too late.

Frankly the BHA would have been better off buying the database from the RP and undertaking to maintain it themselves (not that the RP would have sold it I suspect despite how much they'll have us believe they lose on it). There's a generation of casual users/bettors now who've grown accustomed to using the RP database and there has to be a very realistic prospect that deprived of their most comprehensive weapon they'll simply walk away from racing.

The BHA could have foreseen this at least 2 years ago but I'm not sure they've really appreciated the hole it's threatening to leave in the 'casual interest' segment of their market.

If Robin's still looking in, I'd be interested to hear what the BHA might have planned?
 
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What isn't made clear from the article quoted, but is mentioned an an email I just got from them, is that their RUK live stream is also now in Flash format and, therefore, should be browser and platform independent.

Which is very nice.
 
This would be the same Racing Post who went to great lengths to campaign and organise a petition to the governemnt not so long ago about the loss of a free to view facility that might damage the sport ?
 
When it's someone else's free to view facility, in this case the BBC's, the Racing Post go up in arms. This will lower the profile of racing and lead to less people showing any interest in it etc Ultimately it threatens their sales, but they cloak this under the auspices of the wider loss to the sport that removing a free to view facility from terrestrial television will have. When it's their own 'free to view' facility however (the database), no such concerns seem to be a factor, as they clearly feel under no conpunction to invoke the 'wider damage card' should thousands simply walk away. In truth, I'd have thought more people will be lost to racing as a result of charging for the database then will be for the BBC dropping yet more meetings, it's not really clear where people are going to get their introductory taster from either, as can't see many people signing up to the RP on spec
 
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Ah, sorry, got you now. I have no idea what kind of effect charging for the RP site will have on the sport in general, but it is something of a double standard.
 
basically if we don't pay in July we are going to get very little..seems the jist?

I wonder how much buying the membership will cost?..the fact I can't seem to find out tells me not cheap

I'll definately find an alternative if its a ridiculous charge..just on principle....I don't care about tipsters and folks writing articles..but I would like to be able to see each race laid out and read a horse's history etc.

If thats not possible I'll have to find summat else

I would say its a MASSIVE error of judgement...I hope it goes tits up for them

The money thats been wasted on trying to encourage people to take an interest in racing..so they make it a pay as you go..yes i can see lots of fringe..possible future fans..paying:whistle:

they like their petitons at the Post..this issue is more important than the beeb one in many ways...its akin to not putting a racing page in a newspaper...what a great way of pushing racing to the bottom of the pile.

complete idiots tbh
 
Looks like it, EC1.

I can see why they would want to make money out of the website as paper sales are dropping across the board. Fair enough.

They say "a small charge" - any indication of whether this is monthly/annual/per item?

I will continue to buy The Weekender and get the same info for less. Sure I will have to wait a week for the results sheets to come out, but I can access the Life's in the meantime for any updates that I need.

Guess I was always a pen-and-paper woman at heart.
 
I think they waste a lot of money Redhead on writers .

If they cut the budget by just employing people with something interesting to add then they wouldn't need to be going down this road.

Same with many things..too many overpaid empty vessels..a gravy train to be paid for by us mugs.

I hope the whole paper and site go under tbh if they continue with this sort of easy opt out

They need to get someone in with some nous..weed out the shite..and streamline the whole process.
 
I'd do a weekly blog for free if they want me :)

Anyway, it does indeed seem to be a rather odd and even hypocritical move to start charging when every stakeholder in racing should be doing their bit to enhance racing to the casual racegoer.

I thought the move to get rid of archive races on youtube was a shockingly negative move and this rivals it..
 
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