by Dan Leary, USTA director of communications
Columbus, OH — At this year’s 19th International Simulcast Conference, held from Oct. 3-5, in Scottsdale, Arizona, they saved the best for last.
The three-day event, co-sponsored by the TRA and the Harness Tracks of America, in conjunction with the American Greyhound Track Operators, utilized industry experts to discuss a wide array of topics including cyber security, race scheduling, wagering products, technology, takeout reduction, international markets and television.
It was the closing session, “The Truth About Television and Racing,” that included one of, if not, the most impressive, knowledgeable panel of experts that I’ve heard during my nearly two decades in racing. To list all of their career titles and accomplishments would take up the rest of this story, so it’ll have to be abridged.
Mike Trager and Ed Seigenfeld have been lynchpins in the history of racing’s biggest network broadcast events, the Breeders’ Cup and Triple Crown, respectively. Trager, chairman of the Trager Group, which specializes in television consulting, rights and production, was responsible for negotiating the initial contract that secured four hours of live coverage for Thoroughbred’s World Championships on NBC Sports and sold event sponsorships until 2001. He’s big time.
Seigenfeld is the former executive vice president of Triple Crown Productions, where he negotiated broadcast rights with ABC and later NBC for nearly two decades to televise the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes.
The other half of the panel consisted of racing’s two biggest television all-stars, Amy Zimmerman, executive producer and vice president of production/programming for HRTV and Executive VP of TVG Tony Allevato, who have both been key executives at racing’s two networks since their inceptions.
It was noted that while most sports that have their own network only have one, horse racing has two.
There were several key topics that the panel unanimously agreed upon. Topping the list was criticism for the television analysis and recommendations from the McKinsey Study, which concluded that television exposure needs to be a key element of the growth for the industry. They didn’t disagree with that conclusion; just the solutions offered and noted that no one from the study spoke to any of the four panelists in doing their research, a huge oversight.
Some of their criticisms were that the problems cited were not new, the industry needs to be smarter about television coverage, quality is more important than quantity, racing needs to channel more of its resources into the two existing racing networks, and that the industry is falling too far behind with HD TV, which presents a great opportunity to showcase the racetrack experience.
A similar study commissioned by the harness racing industry also cited the importance of racing on television. While cost is a major roadblock to securing time on network TV, harness racing has made some inroads at both TVG and HRTV and as those two networks strive to promote the growth of our sport, we should focus on being more of a part of it, especially since we have desired programming at night.
Probably the second best discussion of the conference involved Mobile Racing Applications and the potential to greatly improve customer service, especially to core fans. I’d recommend looking at Del Mar’s mobile site dmtc.com on your phone or tablet to see what they’re doing. It’s impressive.
Other topics also created a buzz. In the opening session, Financial Times columnist Joseph Menn attempted to strike the fear of God into the audience as he told horror stories about the magnitude of hacking and security breaches in the cyber world, emphasizing that wagering sites were logical targets.
Jockey Club VP Jason Wilson summarized the key conclusions of the McKinsey Study, including the prediction that the racing fan base will decrease four percent annually, leaving only 64 percent of today’s fans by 2020 if the industry remains on its current path. He also noted that the cost of ownership will increase by 50 percent during the same time.
Brad Kimbrell, executive VP of InCompass Solutions, demonstrated the progress of one of the initiatives from the study. With the goal of having “fewer, better” races and providing racing secretaries with new tools to maximize handle through more effective scheduling of races, InCompass analyzed more than 600,000 races over 11 years. They used 30 variables to develop a matrix that allows prediction of the expected handle within 15 percent for each race used and for where it is placed on the card. Sounds like something our racing secretaries might be interested in.
Of course there was the obligatory “lower takeout, increase handle” panel, a presentation of cross marketing promotions between Prairie Meadows and the AQHA, a discussion of the difficulties involved in international simulcasting and a conversation with some University of Arizona RTIP students who provided “a younger perspective” about the industry they want to pursue as a career.
Finally, the winner of the 2011 Simulcast Award was Keeneland.