from the University of Arizona Race Track Industry Program

Tucson, AZ — Two days of presentations of newideas in racing wrapped up on Wednesday in Tucson as the 43rd annualGlobal Symposium on Racing & Gaming concluded.

The event is sponsored by the Race Track Industry Program at theUniversity of Arizona.

Innovation was showcased as speakers representing a variety ofperspectives discussed how horse racing can embrace the future.

Walter Hessert, chief product officer of Derby Games, said thatmobile activity is driving business growth and said that his firm isintroducing a new product called “Race Champ.”

He pointed out that five percent of all Americans go to the racesor bet on racing three or more times each year, and that there are 220,000Americans betting races online.

Hessert also detailed the barriers to online betting, such as thecost; the wait between races; unfamiliar jargon; the requirement for a SocialSecurity number; and others.

“Horse racing needs to find ways for customers to interact and beentertained online,” he said. “Racing needs a new way for people to play. Ifyou search online for horse racing, you find just a bunch of low-budgets apps.”

Yenni Vance of Remington Park told symposium attendees, “If atrack doesn’t have a clean, integrated strategy to engage customers, you’regoing to fail.”

She dismissed claims that horse racing is dying, but stressed thatracing has simply been slow to adopt mobile strategies.

“Mobile is a way of life now,” Vance said. “You need a fullybranded, comprehensive marketing solution.”

She detailed the development of the “My Remington Park,” anaward-winning app.

“It gives customers everything they need at their fingertips,”Vance said.

Hai Ng, a partner in Neomancer LLC, shared his experiences withattendees on how racing can learn from gaming events that have broad appeal tomillennials around t+he world.

A quartet of wagering experts spoke on Wednesday afternoon aboutwhat’s going on in their corners of the wagering world. The panel was titled“Making Wagering Great Again.”

Andrew Offerman, a graduate of the Race Track Industry Program andnow director of racing operations at Canterbury Park, showed charts of howwagering and purses at the Minnesota track have increased in recent years.

He said that the track is able to draw large crowds, often as highas 20,000 people for special events.

Canterbury experimented with reduced takeout rates with mixedsuccess, he pointed out. While wagering increased, the increases did not offsetthe reductions in takeout.

Klaus Ebner from the Woodbine Entertainment Group said, “Bigfields are the key to driving wagering. Also, adjust your post times sothat you don’t step on post times from major tracks. Don’t force your customersto decide which one to bet.”

Woodbine’s efforts to make wagering great include lowering bothbet minimums and takeout. WEG has also pushed its multiple bets to enticebettors wanting to hit a big payoff.

David Haslett from Sky Racing World in Australia noted thatwagering on racing is increasing in Australia while the US pari-mutuel isdeclining. He attributed the increases to providing customers with options,such as fixed odds wagering, flexible betting amounts, and allowing a customerto cash out early on a Pick 4 bet.

Bart Barden, the US director for Betfair, extolled the merits ofexchange wagering in which some customers bet on horses to win and others beton horses to lose. He said exchange wagering has proven effective in increasingcustomer engagement, and noted that it can increase betting churn.

Veterinarians Dianne Benson and Ron Jensen discussed the entirepost-race testing process and explained why chain-of-custody in samples is socritical to maintaining integrity.

Dr. Benson is the executive director and chief operating officerof the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium, said, “There is diminishedvalue in blood-only samples of numerous horses. It is better today to havepaired (blood and urine) testing samples on fewer horses.”

Dr. Jensen, who works with the NTRA Safety & IntegrityAlliance, explained how post-race testing procedures began in the 1930s withsaliva swabs. That was later replaced with urine testing, and then bloodtesting became the preferred method.

“You need to eliminate the contamination of the post-race sampleas much as possible,” Dr. Jensen stressed. “Every little detail is important toassure the integrity of the test barn procedures.”

Representatives of USFantasy explained their efforts to apply thepari-mutuel wagering concept to sports. It’s been launched in Nevada andUSFantasy is hoping that it will develop in Colorado where initial results havebeen modest. Sports wagering is seen as a way to augment betting at the trackor OTBs and ADWs.

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