Building an Online Audience for Small Town Tracks!

 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the small-town tracks in Ontario who usually have their grandstands full every weekend with happy fans, were forced to race without spectators for a good part of their racing season. Seeing these popular grandstands empty was extremely sad, but understandable considering it was in the best interests of everyone’s safety. At one point in each track’s season they were all subject to a restriction of 100 spectators which was at least a step in the right direction. The majority of these spots were filled by owners to watch their horses race, leaving hundreds of people disappointed who wanted the opportunity to go to their hometown track and catch the excitement of harness racing.

There was a lot of uncertainty about how the handle was going to be affected at the small-town tracks, considering they all bet around the range of $3,000-$10,000 on the online platforms historically. Online wagering wasn’t a concern for these racetracks as they would usually handle over $25,000 every race card, that being just on track and that’s something to be proud of. We have an amazing group of small tracks in Ontario, Hiawatha Horse Park, Hanover Raceway, Dresden Raceway, Leamington Raceway, Kawartha Downs and Clinton Raceway. The opening weekend of June 6^th and June 7^th really set the standard for what the handles were going to be like. Some tracks really hit the mark and scored significant bets online and exceeded all expectations for small tracks. Kicking it off for small tracks was Hanover Raceway who really set the bar high with their production.  They had a brand-new broadcast set with a very solid live steam. This seemed to be the theme as many other tracks also invested in brand-new graphic packages and other exciting features like new wagers, Facebook live streams, broadcasts on You Tube and engaging social media. During COVID-19 all these tracks did an excellent job keeping everyone as safe as possible, at the same time doing everything they could to let a limited number of spectators on the grounds.

As opening day was approaching at my home track Leamington Raceway, I happily accepted the job of track announcer for the 2020 racing season, my first break through role in the industry. Going into the racing season I knew we were up against some big challenges and our focus would have to be different to drive our handle than in previous years. In the past, we enjoyed one of the highest on track handles and really only offered online wagering since 2019. We needed a new strategy to build an online audience because it was our only option, and it wasn’t going to be an easy mission to gain a massive audience online like we do in person. We are very thankful for Gerald Hill and the team at OnTrack for setting up a brand-new graphics package for us for the 2020 racing season.  That was the first step in setting up our online presence. Before the meet started, we also purchased a brand-new camera so we could film some interviews of drivers/trainers to incorporate into our live stream, to fill the dry air.  It was also very important that we remind our fans that although you can’t be there in person, that you wager online through the Hpi.com platform and we shared videos how to sign up and place a bet. It was very challenging transitioning fans to wagering online and it wasn’t as easy for us as it was for other tracks in Ontario as a lot of our fans prefer the on-track experience and wagering in person.  Being active on all social media platforms was key to reaching out to all audiences of all ages, and twitter was very valuable to attract horse players online. The online product, or viewer experience was definitely something I wanted to improve and a good solution was having On Track set up a live camera in my announcers both, so I could be on camera between racings offering commentary and selections.

After much preparation and anticipation, opening day was not a good start to the season as we had a low handle. It was disappointing to say the least, but it provided motivation to work out the bugs and fix the issues for the following weeks. The technical challenges we experienced (including losing our stream for the first 3 races) were not the only reasons for the low handle. For the first two weeks spectators were not allowed, coupled with the challenge of only being available to wager in some parts of Canada and no US wagering sites the odds were against us. The first couple of weeks were a struggle but it gave a chance for us to work on the brand-new stream, making sure it was stable, clear and adding new features. As the third week rolled along, things started to turn the corner as we were allowed 100 spectators and we got back our pick 4 and pick 3 that we had in previous years, but still weren’t on US wagering sites. By the fourth week we finally got on a couple US wagering sites like the other small tracks and it certainly gave our handle a boost, we were also available in more parts of Canada and fans were happy about that. We were thankful for the team at Hpi Bet for doing all they could to get us on those sites, also fans in the US for requesting the sites to add us as a racetrack.

At this point, post time coordination was very important because we didn’t want to be running over other racetracks and have our races going off at the same time. As for the drag the most we would ever go past 0 minutes is 1 minute, anything past that is not fair to our fans, horse people and drivers, also could make you lose interest. Wagering really began to pick up in September as we started to gain more of an online audience, consistency on social media began to pay off as we started to gain more of an audience online. People started to share our content online and talk about wagering on Leamington, Twitter is a must to build an Online audience. Our Facebook live streams of each race card were getting more views every week along with our YouTube live stream.  These streams really opened our races up to a brand-new audience that typically wouldn’t watch the races. In October, our last month of the racing season, we were seeing over 100 horses entered in the box each week which was amazing, our race secretary Jan Adams always does a fantastic job at making the races competitive. It was surprising to see how strong the wagering was in October as that was usually our weakest month, it was also great to see our online fan base grow and people taking about our racing on social media. Our strongest day of the meet was closing day on October 25^th with wagering just shy of $39,000 and most of that was wagered online, that’s pretty impressive for a small-town track. In 2019 on closing day, we wagered around $33,000 with only $5,000 of it wagered online, in 2020 there was around $27,000 wagered online and just under $12,000 on track and that’s with only 100 spectators. That was a great way to cap off the season with a challenging start, we are so thankful for our amazing fans and the support they have shown us since the return of racing.

As I reflect on the racing season, I am super thankful for the opportunity to be the announcer and for everyone’s support I received. Hats off to Hoof bid and USHWA Canada for offering a great youth handicapping contest I participated in with Nick Barnsdale, thanks to Garnet Barnsdale and Melissa Keith for all their hard work. Seeing different handicappers with selections really makes it exciting, that’s why we had 3 handicappers offer selections on our live stream every week to give our racing fans a varity of selections. Our live stream also made incredible advances with new graphics, following of horses after the post parade along with statistics, instant stretch replay after the race and the races being a lot clearer. The biggest achievement of the meet I have to say is that the Lakeshore Horse Racing Association kept everyone safe; a big thank you to all the amazing horse people, staff and fans, who did a fantastic job following the protocols. When the 2021 season kicks off, I hope we can continue to improve our live stream and add new features to it, also hoping we can have more of our fans back and get back to getting more young fans.  On the wagering side I’m hoping we can expand our wagering menu and add some exciting bets, it would also be nice to get a lower take on our pick 4 because I think the wager really finished off nice at the end of the meet. I cannot wait for opening day at Leamington Raceway on August 8^th with a brand-new post time of 1pm, l believe that it will be a very exciting racing season.

In Conclusion, I am very hopeful for the future of small tracks in Ontario as they have made major advancements with technology in the last year. Its very important that we keep our small tracks around as they are very important to rural communities and give young people like myself a chance to start out in the industry, lets continue to support these tracks in any way we can.

By Nathan Bain