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Horses for courses


H


orse racing needs to change its funding model and broaden its appeal if the industry is to thrive and meet the challenge posed by


the booming sports betting market, critics say.


The total amount bet on other sports was forecast to overtake horse racing in 2014 and keep on pulling ahead in coming years, according to figures released at the Asian Racing Conference (via Global Betting and Gaming Consultancy, GBGC) in May last year.


GBGC estimated that US$133.13 billion was bet on sport in 2014 compared to $132.68 billion on horse racing. However, that only refers to the legal


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market and the underground figure is thought to be much higher.


Former director of trading at the Hong Kong Jockey Club and now British based independent betting expert Patrick Jay estimates the total amount bet, including illegal gambling, is more than US$1 trillion, and maybe as much as $3 trillion, with 90 percent of that bet through the black market.


Racing has traditionally been funded primarily by betting and some claim this is short sighted and old fashioned. While turnover figures in Hong Kong racing continue to rise, helped by the Jockey Club's gambling monopoly and forward thinking


marketing by officials, racing elsewhere continues to struggle.


International Federation of Horse Racing Authority Statistics show that turnover on racing in Australia and France grew by more than 1 billion euros ($1.08 billion) between 2006 and 2012, but in the sport's other traditional strongholds Japan, Great Britain and the United States, betting handle dropped more than one billion euros in each jurisdiction over the same period.


Jason Trost is founder and CEO of Smarkets, a betting exchange licensed in Malta that fields on sports, including racing.


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