Wynn's Johnny Avello: How to increase horse racing's popularity ...

The only time I can remember winning a decent chunk of money on a horse race came last year when I placed an accidental bet on the wrong horse to win the wrong race at the Belmont Stakes.

Like most people, I bet three horse races per year?the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont. And, like most people, I have no idea how to navigate my way around an Off Track Betting site.

The cards are confusing, the odds are confusing, the potential payoffs are confusing, and everybody around you has no idea what they?re doing?you have no idea what you?re doing?and, well, the whole process kind of stinks.

Recreational bettors don?t like to be confused and they certainly don?t like to feel intimidated in an unfamiliar environment. But inevitably, thousands of would-be bettors are turned off by horse racing because they don?t ?get it.?

So, as we approach Saturday?s Preakness, what can be done to increase betting interest and handle??That?s the question ESPN.com?s Chad Millman asked Wynn Casino?s Johnny Avello, a longtime oddsmaker and horse racing enthusiast.

From Millman?s Insider blog:

The answer is this: Make betting easier. These days, hard-core race fans are the people who had the love passed down from their fathers or grandfathers. They practiced math by calculating exactas. But we are a math-weary point-spread nation when it comes to sports. We are a luck-of-the-draw, big-score nation when it comes to payouts. Avello offered up two options:

1. ?Offer a bet of how many lengths the winning horse will win by. It?s the nearest thing to a point spread we are going to get.?
2. ?Make it like a lottery: Pick the winner of any race and you win a million bucks.?

The second option looks like a logistical nightmare, but the first idea seems doable. Except, instead of using the lengths of the winning horse as the point spread, why not create head-to-head matchups with all horses in the field?

Bodemeister might be a two-length favorite over the horse with the second-best odds but a 15-length favorite over the horse with the eighth-best odds. The horse with the fifth-best odds might be a three-length favorite over the horse with the ninth-best odds. And so on.

I?d certainly bet it. But would anybody else?

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