The old system needed to change, it didn’t make sense any more. I’ve been to meetings where there were not more than 200 people and maybe half a dozen bookies, and in theory they were supposed to be forming the market, on every horse in each race, for tens of thousands of people to bet on.
It seems that the new system introduced during Covid gives a slightly lower over round than the old one. But it does this by offering better prices on outsiders, and therefore the improvement is mainly theoretical. Generally speaking, bets are disproportionately concentrated on the most fancied horses, and the new system offers lower odds on such horses than before.
But the biggest problem with the new system is its lack of transparency. If the on-course odds reporters are being made redundant, what monitoring system has replaced them, and what are the protections against manipulation? What indicators should be used to ensure that punters are getting fair value?