Our mighty leaders might do well to keep an eye on the NRL and its inconclusive dealings with bookies meaning, in greyhound language the corporates with a dash of Tabcorp thrown in. NRL wants to get higher commissions from the corporates for big events such as the State of Origin while leaving alone the normal week to week club contests. Bookies are not amused and a standoff is in place. (I am not a fan of the way corporate bookies operate, by the way). Victorian punters will note that this is the same caper followed by Melbourne thoroughbred clubs. The more popular the races, the more bookies have to pay. In reality, this is screwy logic. In theory, higher bookie costs will restrict their ability to offer better deals to their customers. Arguably, that would reduce turnover or profits or both. On the other hand, the galloping clubs want to grab as much as they can from a captive or fixed (so they would say) market, much of which is ignorant of racings fine points. The hard facts are that attendances are falling overall, and so are oncourse bookie numbers and breeding activity in all codes. Prize money is being boosted on occasions by charging owners high entry fees for some peak races (Everest, Magic Millions, etc) while normal betting turnover is flat out covering inflation. Likewise, weekly NRL matches find it difficult to get fans to the ground but can still fill the house for Origin and Finals. But back to the heart of it all. If you charge more for a product you will tend to attract fewer customers. Covering inflation is one thing but screwing customers is always a dubious approach. A better option is to turn them into regular fans and thereby profit from them every week. Admittedly, todays greyhound customers probably do not understand that they are already being overcharged via Fixed Odds where punitive books of 130% are common and nasty rules on payouts show up in the fine print. Pokies and casinos offer much better odds. All of which is further evidence that the code is being taken over by mugs in pubs using their thumb for a bet while fair dinkum punters are disappearing. Still, a national betting pool could bring some of them back, provided we make life a little easier.
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