Skip to main content

Tabcorp get creative with the imaginatively named 'Big6'

... but still pull out an average product.

Victorian and NSW tote monopoly TABCORP gave been blasted in recent years for their lack of innovation with new bet types. A decade ago they had a bet called the Straight Six requiring punters to land the winner of six races in a row. They sacked it because apparently it was a bad thing the syndicates got heavily involved, pumping tens of thousands of dollars into the pools which rolled over for several weeks.

In recent years they have brought out lemons such as Spinner (will the first two horses home be even numbers, odd or 'split' as per two-up, with a 16% margin!), Duet (place quinellas - famously advised as a great bet by King Muppet Robert Nason because 'my mum likes it') and the Mystery 6, which was similar to the Straight 6, but you couldn't pick your own numbers, it was just a lottery ticket.

The Big 6 will be on the last six races (no variety for quality of race or how short the favourite is) and mostly likely all at the same venue. If it did go cross-venue, then it would only go Melbourne and Sydney because that's where Tabcorp hold their licences, no interest in including other states. No free-to-air TV to potentially get it into millions of homes, and it lacks the place and bonus portions like the Scoop6.

Read more about the Big 6 here.

It's a step in the right direction from Tabcorp, but it wouldn't have taken more than five minutes to think of it and they haven't researched abroad to see why the Scoop6 can really get people excited about it.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Spot-fixing - you will never, ever be able to stop it

According to this report , IPL tournaments so far have been rife with spot-fixing - that is fixing minor elements of the game - runs in a single over, number of wides bowled etc. The curious part of that article is that the Income Tax department are supposed to have found these crimes. What idiot would be stupid enough to put down 'big wad of cash handed to me by bookie' as a source of income? Backhanders for sportsmen, particularly in a celebrity- and cricket-obsessed culture like India are not rare. They could come from anything like turning up to open someone's new business (not a sponsor, but a 'friend of a friend' arrangement), to being a guest at some devoted fan's dinner party etc. The opportunities are always there, and there will always be people trying to become friends with players and their entourage - that is human nature. This form of match-fixing (and it's not really fixing a match, just a minor element of it) is very hard to prove, but also, ...

lay the field - my favourite racing strategy

Dabbling with laying the field in-running at various prices today, not just one price, but several in the same race. Got several matched in the previous race at Brighton, then this race came along at Nottingham. Such a long straight at Nottingham makes punters often over-react and think the finish line is closer than it actually is. As you can see by the number of bets matched, there was plenty of volatility in this in-play market. It's rare you'll get a complete wipe-out with one horse getting matched at all levels, but it can happen, so don't give yourself too much risk...

It's all gone Pete Tong at Betfair!

The Christmas Hurdle from Leopardstown, a good Grade 2 race during the holiday period. But now it will go into history as the race which brought Betfair down. Over £21m at odds of 29 available on Voler La Vedette in-running - that's a potential liability of over £500m. You might think that's a bit suspicious, something's fishy, especially with the horse starting at a Betfair SP of 2.96. Well, this wasn't a horse being stopped by a jockey either - the bloody horse won! Look at what was matched at 29. Split that in half and multiply by 28 for the actual liability for the layer(s). (Matched amounts always shown as double the backers' stake, never counts the layers' risk). There's no way a Betfair client would have £600m+ in their account. Maybe £20 or even £50m from the massive syndicates who regard(ed) Betfair as safer than any bank, but not £600m. So the error has to be something technical. However, rumour has it, a helpdesk reply (not gospel, natur...