Thinking Twice

The Cape tornovers are due in part to the small exotic pools.These pools will always remain low due to the number of couplings.There are 6 big yards in CT who win about 52% of the races whereas JHB and KZn top 6 yards win under 20% of races.
One major reason outside of the Met the Cape would be a plum is that if international race was to be held it would be in CT due to the AHS protocol.
Makes the Cape a sought after location.
KZN is only as strong as it is now because of the JHB satellite yards.Pulls huge bets from thr north year round.

Surely the future is Tote and betting exchanges only.....a tote is, after all, a betting exchange anyway!
To maximise free enterprise and therefore service to the public what appears ideal would be A) 1 tote pool but remove the monopoly by allowing more service providers to bet into said pools(the only reason the open bet exists, is due to bad service provided by present avenues)
B)Fixed odds betting exchange/s(betfair seem to be able to afford a lot of racing sponsorship).Bookmakers who are good at their trade will participate and probably do even better as they will have access to the entire market.Those bookmakers relying on protection (and bad odds) to survive may struggle,but so they should.Prices will be determined by true market forces!

i like the way you think. structure the industry so that the tote and the exchange(s) each pay the same share of their betting profits to support racing. to make sure it's fair and transparent, the tote should not control racing, but should be a customer of racing.

EDIT: a v interesting point, rob, that more operators should be licensed to operate tote pools or to bet into a central tote pool. commingling is invariably the way to generate decent dividends, but equally punters should have a choice of operators competing for their business in various ways. currently each province only allows one tote licence which never ever comes up for re-tender. who the hell thought up that clever idea? even the agency tote outlets are kept under such strict control by P/GC that they can't offer something different to attract more punters.

GERI, yesterday you said:

"In the days of seperate Race Clubs Milnerton paid a greater % than Kenilworth and both paid more in % than Natal and Transvaal clubs.Of course their turnover was far greater so their stakes were higher."

Today you say: "The Cape turnovers are due in part to the small exotic pools"

I asked yesterday what happened to the big turnovers from yesterday? Today we have much more racing then in those days, that alone should result in much higher turnovers.

At a quick glance there are +- 130 tote outlets in KZN, whilst there are only 69 in the Cape, and my information says that that number is dropping all the time. As things stand today, there is absolutely no reason for the Cape to grow their turnovers or to even be bothered with it.

Rob faux, I also like your thinking, it makes a lot of sense.

Sharkie
The pools today are far greater than 15 years ago. % don't change.Yes the share of the GC turnover in CT has dropped as a % of the TOTAL GC turnover.
Regarding the exotics and smaller pools.
This I believe is because of the strength of the 6 large stables in CT
A pick 6 has huge number of couplings in almost every leg.If you put in one horse you get 3 very often all with fair chances.Because they nominate up to 10 horses in a single race they always have at least 1 well drawn ,sometimes 2 or 3.
The draw also plays too big a part in deciding races.