Harness racing needs big prop rewards

I was watching an old, nostalgic, black and white comedy television show the other day with the husband joking, ”Mabel, you don’t have to remind me to hang the pictures on the wall. You’ve done it every single day for the last TWO MONTHS!”

More about that later…

Some complain that harness racing is losing patronage because the “takeout” at racetracks is too high with a near 20% clip on win-place-show betting and, in some cases, over 30% on any exotic wager.

That’s understandable but, compared to the “numbers racket,” now legalized and known as the lottery, our numbers stack up very favorably compared to the State run, blood draining lottery games in the 45 States, D.C., Puerto Rico and U.S. Territories that allow such sales.

The “takeout” on each sale is 40% to 50%, depending on the “game” with the takeout going into, among other things, the State’s “general fund,” health and social services, education, some pension funds, literacy programs and, in some States, gambling addiction and a few other things.

So, what’s the “lure” and the “catch” to catch us “fish?”

Huge multi-million-dollar awards…as millions of us bite that lure with the sharp hook every time we get close to one of the more than 200,000 lottery retailers in the U.S. advertising a multi-million-dollar payday if you can pick five winning numbers out of 70 or 80…plus one more separate number to seal the deal.

The odds are 292,201,338 to 1.

Of course, the odds are much more “favorable” for a $1,000,000 prize pegged at 11,688,054 to 1.

Even a measly $4 prize is 38 to 1.

Over 90 BILLION DOLLARS was “invested” in the lottery in the most recent reporting year with only Alabama, Utah, Hawaii, Alaska and, surprisingly, Nevada absent—the first two on religious grounds and Nevada on “competitive grounds,” though many stores and airports have slot machines!

In past years, there have been pressure on some non-participating States to get the lottery, simply because neighboring States get the dollars as residents cross over State lines to buy tickets.

Hawaii and Alaska don’t have that problem—they have no neighbors!

That’s where the “prop” bets come in with the sports betting industry now booming and ballooning to 29 States (and counting) with 2022 LEGAL revenue approaching $94 BILLION, up from $4 billion just five years ago. It was far more than that when all sources, both legal and illegal, were factored in the numbers.

Prior to that, when Las Vegas was the only legal spot for sports betting, the estimate was $5 billion with the American Gaming Institute estimating the true number to be closer to $150 billion.

Back just a few years ago, any huge success on a sports bet was “hush-hush” but, more recently some of the more notable scores have received the headlines…far reaching headlines.

That added fuel to the raging fire of success for sports betting and, in recent Mane Attraction columns, much has been written advocating the acceptance of harness racing into the fold.

Take the bettor who turned $5 into a massive $72,795 and by selecting who would score the first touchdown in each of the NFL’s four divisional games.

Headlines rang across the nation about the hit and deservedly so.

The main thing here was that the headlines were both inside the NFL circle and, even more importantly OUTSIDE of the NFL circle drawing more attention to sports betting.

Soccer isn’t as big in the U.S. (yet) as it is in other countries but there were sure headlines when a bettor in Peru bet PEN2 (that’s 51 cents in U.S. money) after a soccer parlay paid the gent PEN1,141 or, in U.S. money, $291.30.

You may say it’s a paltry amount for headlines but that amount of money is about what a month’s rent costs near Lima, the capital of Peru.

Another guy bet PEN25 ($6.38 U.S.) on another soccer parley and walked away with over $6,000.

Peru is way far away from the heart of the United States, but it made some headlines here.

Of course, there’s Mattress Mack’s $75,000,000 haul on the outcome of the World Series and, of course, that made headlines galore.

Nothing is “off limits” when it comes to prop bets.

One of the more interesting situations came in the political arena when sports- books offered a “lie detector” prop bet on the number of lies Donald Trump would tell during a prime time speech. The over-under was 3.5 with fact checking by the Washington Post.

About 92% of the bettors took the over…costing the sportsbook $275,000 paid to the winning bettors.

In NFL action, there was a prop bet at 50 to 1 odds that the first score in a game would be a safety. “John R” put a grand down and got $51,000 when it happened.

In another football game (Super Bowl LIII), “Nate” plunked $2 on a crazy parlay offering that—part one—Tom Brady would throw interception on his first pass and

—part two—there would be no touchdowns during the first half.

Very improbable? Yes! Impossible? Well, anything’s possible and “Nate” collected $1,131.58 for his $2 prop wager.

Prop betting covers most sports and, as mentioned, soccer is one of them. One fan from Germany placed a $20 bet on Germany beating Brazil by the exact score of 7 to 1 with the caveat being Sami Khedira of Germany scoring a goal.

The sportsbook figured the odds at 2,319 to 1 and when the “impossible” happened, the winner collected $46,000…and some small change.

Of course, these are just a trickling few of the prop bet history…and they all get headlines!

That’s the whole point.

It’s one thing to have headlines inside your own little circle…but it’s quite another to reach out, break the bubble and get headlines outside of our own comfortable surroundings.

In order for harness racing to survive and thrive, the bubble has to be broken in headlines and sports betting—prop betting—is one way to have that happen.

In an upcoming Mane Attraction, we’ll suggest some possible prop bets that can get those headlines and attract new fans to our sport.

It can continue to happen for others or it can start to happen for our sport.

When it happens, we just may be able to reach a whole new base of fans that follow the sport of harness racing for its most important reason…SO THEY CAN BET ON IT!

By the way, about that joke at the beginning of this Mane Attraction…

There’s no correlation…except the fact that I have been “harping” about prop wagers lately, just as Mabel was harping about hanging the pictures in that first joke.

I guess the only difference is…this prop betting situation is “NO JOKE!”

by John Berry, for Harnesslink