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The Tuesday Take: A cure for racing’s common cold?

It’s 1am on Monday morning. I look at my phone.

A new owner I’ve never spoken to in Liverpool has found us on the internet and just bought shares in our Diamond Boy filly and our Jeu St Eloi filly. They join our WhatsApp groups right away. I text them – “Hi, I’m Jack. Thanks very much for the support, you’ve bought a share in two beautiful fillies there.” I hesitate but I pick my phone back up to write again before he replies – “You’re hardly watching the NFL as well are you?”.

He had backed the Kansas City Chiefs too.

In the US in 2023, the NFL accounted for an astounding 93 of the top 100 most-watched television shows. Pause for a second and look at this chart – essentially live TV is the NFL now. 

How has it achieved such dominance? Good old fashioned American capitalism? No, American’s favourite sport is embracing communism. 

In horse racing, we’re drowning in conflicted interests. At times we can feel like we’re playing a game of Twister – put your hand over there, your leg up your nose and hope it all doesn’t collapse.

What does the NFL do so well in contrast? It focuses on growing the pie by working together rather than fighting over the existing pie. It does this by uniting interests and splitting the pies into two pots – national revenue and local revenue. 

National revenue, which is shared across all 32 teams, consists of:

  • TV deals with the various networks

  • Merchandising;

  • NFL Enterprise:

    • NFL Network, NFL.com and NFL Sunday Ticket

    • Licensing deals, such as “official sponsors of the NFL”

    • Ticket sales (40% of gross)

Local revenue, which goes to the local team, consists of:

  • Ticket sales (60% of gross)

  • Concessions and parking, which are split between the team and stadium ownership

  • Corporate sponsorships with the local team

You can’t coast as you won’t reap the rewards of local revenue but work together for the greater good and you can enjoy your national share too. 

Today, racecourses won’t tell you what they receive in media rights. Breeders think stallion owners are too greedy. Bookmakers want races at awkward times for trainers so they can attract more punters. It’s makes Twister look like line dancing. 

The reality is, beyond a minority, all the participants in racing want to see the sport thrive. What practical suggestions should we then take? Perhaps, it’s time for some communism. 

Common Voice – A Roger Goodell commissioner of racing? It would be nice to think. I think a more realistic goal today is a dedicated outward voice for racing. A person that can give our objective facts but doesn’t yet have the power to create actual policy. When controversy has hit racing in recent times – the Grand National, questions over the extent of government funding, affordability checks what we lack is an independent organisation that represents all parts of the racing industry. Racing authorities are too often conflicted by being in direct receipt of government-mandated funds. We need to fund and invest in an independent common voice. 

Common Bets – Maybe a small island nation can lead the way in our communist revolution? No, not Ireland – New Zealand. This weekend $9.5 million was wagered on the Karaka Millions – the most on any New Zealand meeting spanning back to at least 1998. Approx 25% of this turnover was by Boys Get Paid, a punting club which brought together tens of thousands of people to bet collectively. The Boys Get Paid punters club started with around $1.2m in the kitty on the day, and returned their followers $600,000. With the average investment being around $60, most who played along lost just $30. Like it or not, increasing betting turnover is the best way to grow our sport – it funds prize money, it increases engagement and it gets people through the door. If we’re to find a new way to do things up here, maybe we should start by copying each others’ homework. 

Common coverage – Racing TV and At The Races do a fabulous job but I wonder will the ambition be there for the next media rights deal. If the sport was to create its own media arm like the NFL’s NFL Films, racing could  box clever. Free to air to when betting turnover is most important, subscriptions for enhanced coverage during festivals and liberalised access  across the internet for the sport to be discovered (YouTube, streaming platforms, social media) not hiding behind a paywall. Once the greatest bastion of pay-per-view experiences on television, World Wrestling Entertainment has this week signed a $5 billion deal with Netflix – imagine the distribution of your sport when made available as part of the world’s most dominant streaming service. It’s just common sense. 

When the Super Bowl rolls round in two weeks time don’t think of two teams in conflict for one of the biggest prizes in sport. Think of 32 teams working together for a common goal –  to create the biggest business in sports. 


Our record breaking month

We’ve had the biggest month ever at Syndicates.Racing – over 12,000 individual people have visited our website in January alone. Just this week Cabaret Princess has sold out, our Diamond Boy filly is virtually certain to sell out today and now, like dominies, it looks like the rest of the team will follow suit.

It’s been hugely rewarding speaking with so many of our existing and new owners about your goals in racing and helping you pick the best horses for you. That’s why we’re starting something new – each week we’ve reserved time when you can book one-to-one chats with us. Tell us how we can improve, get advice on what new recruits to buy shares in or simply, help us figure out did Brian Stacey make it home after Queen of Atlantis won at the weekend?

So what are you waiting for? Chats are 20 mins, effortless to book and you can grab one of the first spots here.


Community Catch Up @ DRF

We’re very excited to catch-up with lots of our community this weekend at the Dublin Racing Festival. We’ve got two ways to create a bit more fun this weekend – you can take part in our competition to find the biggest priced winner of the weekend with Champ.ie or on Sunday at Leopardstown you can join us for some drinks on us. If you’d like to join us on Sunday, all you’ve got to do is join our Community WhatsApp group below and we’ll give you directions to the promised land on Sunday. We’ll tell the barman to get the Guinness ready.

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