LONDON - English racing authorities must follow what their footballing counterparts did in creating the Premier League and overhaul their sport if it is to halt its decline, a leading expert said Friday.
Bill Mummery, executive director of online bookmaker Celton Manx, said racing in England had failed to attract a younger audience to replace the present generation of enthusiasts
Bill Mummery, executive director of online bookmaker Celton Manx, said racing had failed to attract a younger audience to replace the present generation of enthusiasts.
The bookmaking veteran did not mince his words in front of a cross section of online and retail bookmakers at the two day Betting on Sport Conference.
"One of the main challenges facing racing is that its traditional audience is literally dying out," said Mummery.
"The sport has not been successful in bringing through the next generation -- horse racing betting is quite complicated and generally you need to do a lot of research before placing a bet."
Mummery, whose company are a major player in eGaming in Asia, said the sport suffered from a surfeit of mediocrity which made it less attractive to the viewer or on course spectator.
"There are too many horses in training, too many poor quality races and yet the racecourses (there are 59) are demanding more meetings.
"They should look at football as an example. The Premier League was a working class sport and it transformed itself into a premium product with global reach.
"Racing needs to remodel itself in the same manner and become a premium product."
Lee Richardson, a former industry marketing director, used a famous Sunday Times headline from after the Bradford City stadium fire in 1985 to illustrate how a sport can re-generate.
"The Sunday Times editorial went 'A slum sport played in slum stadiums increasingly watched by slum people," said Richardson.
"From that low they created several years later the Premier League and they haven't stopped growing since."
Richardson, formerly marketing director of the sport's administrative body, but now managing director of gaming consultancy Gaming Economics, said the figures were stark for racing in terms of where it sits in the gambling league table.
"Such has been the decline of racing that 25 years ago we wouldn't have even been having this discussion about racing and its importance to the betting market," said Richardson.
"Back then it was the dominant sport and had 70 to 80% of the retail (betting shops) market.
"The most recent figures to hand are online ones from last November for the top six sports in terms of money gambled.
"Out of a total of money bet of pound sterling1.35 billion, Football came top with pound sterling450million (51%) and racing had slid to a poor second on a total of 315m (36%).
"Indeed globally it has slipped to second too as a conference in the Far East revealed a few months ago, football had overtaken it."
Another reason given for the decline is the falling away of the television audience since national broadcaster BBC lost the contract to rivals Channel Four -- who have returned dreadful figures and been much criticised for not trying to lure new younger viewers.
Channel Four have in turn now been replaced by commercial broadcaster ITV who will begin next year.
"This is really the last chance saloon for righting the ship in terms of increasing viewers," said Paul Darling, chairman of the Association of British Bookmakers.
Whilst there is some cheer in that a record 6.1 million people went racing in Britain last year, Mummery is glum about its future.
"My fear is that what should be one of the world's leading products is in freefall," he said.