HANDICAPPING INSIGHTS
DECEMBER 10, 2010
by Dick Powell
I am at the University of Arizona’s 37th annual Symposium of Racing and
Gaming in Tucson, Arizona. The subject matter of the various panels has been
light on wagering, but there have been some developments that will affect those
of us that wager on horse racing; especially from home.
The biggest news is how you are going to watch horse racing. Some of you have
already seen Roberts Communications Network Inc.’s 80 channels of direct feeds
of various racetracks on a tier (called Racetrack Television Network) which is
available on the DISH Network. Company President and CEO Todd Roberts stated in
a presentation on Wednesday that they are proceeding with plans to roll out more
platforms that they hope will include DirecTV and terrestrial cable TV.
Roberts addressed some concerns about the lag between real time — let’s say
when the gate actually opens — and when the viewer actually gets to see it.
Like most issues in technology, the cost of delivering pictures in real time is
not only technically impossible but cost-prohibitive to get close to real time,
but means of reducing the gap — called latency by the industry — should be
reduced by about a third.
Racetrack Television Network will not only be available on more television
platforms but soon there will be a rollout of it being available on the internet
and mobile devices (smart phone, iPad, tablet computers, etc.) and will be a lot
cheaper than the satellite-based platform. What makes this so exciting is the
world in the very near future will allow for broadcast quality viewing of horse
racing on any number of platforms. As it has been described to me, the industry
works on a one, two and 10 basis. In other words, the device could be one foot
away from the viewer (think iPad, tablet, smart phone), two feet away (think
desktop or laptop computer screens) or 10 feet away (think flat-screen
televisions).
Broadband technology has improved to the point that gone are the days when we
watched races on a computer screen where the viewing area was about the size of
a postage stamp and the race would constantly stop due to buffering. Massive
amounts of data can now be delivered in blazing speed that provides a
broadcast-quality viewing experience regardless of the platform. TwinSpires.com
has been a leader in upgrading the viewing experience for its customers with
high-definition quality pictures from Churchill Downs and the Fair Grounds being
broadcast on its website. Keeneland has done a similar job with its racing and
sales auction broadcasts.
Next April, watch The Masters golf tournament on the internet to see what
level of picture quality is available. It is relatively easy for them to do it
in the sense that they are only broadcasting four days of golf and do not have
to spend the money to broadcast over the internet scores of tracks seven days a
week. But, The Masters, as well as Twinspires.com, shows what is possible and
what will be coming in the very near future.
Unfortunately, broadcasting in high definition is very expensive and even for
the tracks that have developed that capability, they still run into the problem
that the receiving simulcast site has not made the capital investment in high
definition technology. If racing doesn’t act soon enough, we will look like
black and white television in a world of color TV. Most every sport is broadcast
in high definition and the viewer is now used to seeing its picture quality as
the norm. Unless racing can make the investment to catch up, someone channel
surfing that comes across a horse racing channel will quickly keep surfing and
find something else to watch that is visually pleasing.
Luckily, the internet could be horse racing’s answer to solving its high
definition dilemma. Todd Roberts spoke about their investment in transmitting
signals directly from the track to the internet, only using satellite technology
as a backup. This way, high definition signals could be cost-efficiently sent
out over the internet to horse racing viewers without breaking the bank of the
track sending the signal or the simulcast site receiving the signal.
The latest trend in large-screen television technology seems to be
web-enabled televisions that take full advantage of broadcast signals being sent
to them via the internet. Multiple views of the same event are possible as well
as other interactive features. You could be watching a track that has developed
a website and/or an application that enables you to watch the simulcast signal
in high definition and pull up past performances on the TV screen as well.
Multiple camera angles are possible which I would love to see since I like to
watch horses breaking from the gate and going around the turn on the steward’s
view of the race instead of the pan shot. Having both on the screen
simultaneously or allowing me to pick and choose which angle I want to watch
would be awesome.
The ultimate danger of all this is making it so comfortable to stay home and
watch from Living Room Downs will certainly make going to the track less
appealing. But the world is going one way and if we go the other way we will go
the way of the buggy whip industry. If you are one of those people that almost
take pride in lacking any modern technical skills, you will be at a severe
disadvantage competing against bettors that have embraced today’s world.