Friday Forum

The punter is a strange animal. Even when we lose we like to think we have won or at least somebody else has. That is the explanation for this outpouring of crocodile tears from the Racing Board bookies about how much they lost on Jewels Day.

One thing you must understand about bookmakers. The good ones never lose. They may have some days better than others and multi-betting is always an unknown factor though usually strongly in favour of the book. Running a losing book is an extremely short career path and makes no appeal to our friends at the TAB.

Yes, personable Paul Lally puts on a good show of "you were too good for us" and "the bosses will be looking for me" with one of his wistfully sad expressions. However he is an expert marketer and he has milked the Harness Jewels Day for all it is worth. He has been backed by industry media hosts, surely going along for the marketing ride since they must be too smart to think what is apparent is real when it comes to betting. The net result is that a lot more people will be tempted to line up next time and all most will get from the TAB bookies is a cheery "thank you very much".

Nobody mentioned what the TAB made out of much more difficult multiple bets when Auckland Reactor was scratched or how it allowed them to lesson liability on Fiery Falcon on final-field betting. Nobody pointed out that while they might have lost $500,000 in payouts on the day they took over $590,000 in fixed-odds betting just at the Jewels and about the same amount on other races that day. Then there was the $500,000 the meeting turned over in Australia. Swings and roundabouts.

There are extra dangers in big betting on domestic harness racing. There are no international sites to "lay off" big bets since overseas betting agencies treat harness racing like Superman would another visitor from Krypton.

Fixed-odds betting is the greatest thing to have hit New Zealand racing in a long time, and long may it continue, but some punters still seem a little naive about it. Like how often the bookmakers are asked to tip winners to the public. Come on, guys. The last thing a bookmaker, who wants to keep his job, does is to give a sucker an even break. Another is that fixed-odds betting is a cartel in this country. In Australia if a bookie has a bad week he still has to match the odds of the guy next to him, who might have had a good one, or go out of business. Have a bad week in Kiwiland and some small adjustments to the odds soon retrieve the losses. So far this season more than $50m has been bet on fixed odds. The TAB will have retained at least around $10m of that. Bookmakers are a lot more entertaining than totalisators but in the end they have the same aim to get their hands on your money. Sure they smile when they don't but don't think it will start a trend.

- © Fairfax NZ News