A week last Thursday I watched on of my favorite show The Big Bang Theory. The show gets around 15 million viewers a week on the first run episodes. Mostly young viewers too. At 50 I'm still counted in the 25-54 crowd:)
Leonard, one of the main characters was shown playing an interactive video horse racing game:
Exposure like this would actually create more players....if it was poker instead of horse racing.
Too bad horse racing is known to be unbeatable (thanks to mindlessly high takeouts which makes the prospect of being a long term winner impossible unless one is receiving decent rebates...and still it is near impossible in that case).
Instead, this free advertising for horse racing will most likely only create more sales for the Kinect Xbox 360 Bundle and the Champion Jockey game that Leonard was playing.
I am seriously thinking of getting one myself (I'll probably wait until Boxing Day). Looks like a way I can get into exercising. And outside of forking over around $400, there is no track takeout. I can see my actual handle dropping off if I make the purchase as it looks like so much fun it might cut into my handicapping time.
Movies like Secretariat, the fan base created during Zenyatta's quest, and the new comedy movie (And They're Off) about a down and out trainer, and the upcoming HBO series Luck are wasted because there are no visible winners who beat the races long term.
Great to Caroline Betts get a seat at the table at the upcoming Race Track Industry Program Symposium in Arizona early next month. She will be giving the facts on optimum takeout.
I still don't get why Arizona is the meeting place. You can't even bet over the internet in that state. I know the weather is probably good, but why not a racing friendly state in the south instead?
3 comments:
I'm with you - and wish I had an Xbox instead of a Wii!
As an aside, the Symposium is in AZ because it's sponsored by the Racetrack Industry program of the University of AZ, one of only two (at least it was last I checked) racing industry specific degree programs offered by a major university in the U.S.
Last season on NCIS, during the episode entitled "A Man Walks Into A Bar..." (Aired February 8, 2011 on CBS), Tony bragged about acquiring money via a "trifecta", Ziva replied, "I don't want to heart about your "threesomes"! He then told his co-workers about how he reads the horses' body languages-imitating the animals' pawing and neighing as the boss walks in. A few minutes later-while investigating on a battleship (of all places)-Tony remarked to another character that he was just being silly with his "Man O War impression". She reponded that she thought it was Secretariat. The writer for this scene should be given an Eclipse Award. I tried to interview the writer for a freelance story along the same lines as yours but I never got a response. NCIS is the #1 scripted show in the world and I wondered what kind of impact was felt by having a character fan around a wad of cash with a connection to betting an exotic wager.
On the newest episode of Rob Dyrdek's "Fantasy Factory", there are winners' circle photos of the horses he co-owns, on the wall behind him in his office.
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