Odds and Evens bet to give $10 million funding boost to racing
The NSW racing industry is aiming for a $10 million windfall from a new bet type targeted at the young adult market to claw back money wagered on sport.
The Odds and Evens bet was launched on Tuesday at a combined announcement by Racing NSW, Harness Racing NSW, Greyhound Racing NSW and the TAB.
The bet will be based on the numbers of the first two across the line in a race. If both are even numbers it will be an evens result; if both are odd numbers, it's an odds result; and one of each is called a split.
The TAB will take half the commission it takes on other TAB bets and the other half will be paid directly to the racing industry.
It will be split under the inter-code agreement and will fund the $7.5 million Golden Eagle in the thoroughbred world, the Million Dollar Chase for the dogs and a new $1 million harness race scheduled for next May.
“We are confident that it will be popular with punters and cover the costs of those races and maybe more,” Racing NSW chief executive Peter V’landys said. "The focus groups on this bet have been very exciting.
“It will fund the Golden Eagle, which is a new and exciting race on the calendar.
“It is a different way to bet and it is innovative. That will appeal to young people who like to bet on sport.
“In sport, you either follow one side or the other and it is easy to understand which team you are betting on.
“We need an easy bet type to introduce young people and new players to racing. This is an introduction, and then we are hoping they will get more involved.
“Our focus for a long time has been to attract the under-35s to racing, and in the digital age this bet can do that.”
The TAB will utilise merged pool technology to maximise the liquidity by merging the Odds and Evens pool with the quinella pool. The dividend on the winning combination will be declared after the race.
The product is only available to punters in NSW but the TAB is ready to roll it out in other states.
Greyhound Racing NSW chief executive Tony Metrov confirmed the Odds and Evens bet would fund the Million Dollar Chase in October and feels it will particular attractive to dogs punters.
“It suits greyhound racing perfectly with the eight runners. Our demographic is the 18 to 34-year-olds. This falls right into that demographic and obviously we’re trying to capture the older demographic as well,” Metrov said.
Harness Racing NSW will announce its $1 million race next month but, like the greyhound equivalent, it will hold heats in country and provincial areas before having a final in Sydney.