Football odds in the last five years have gone barmy.23/20 or 13/10.Maybe a 17/20 thrown in.Working out a treble on a plain slip at those prices can really do your head in.
The 100/30 has always puzzled me since i started betting.Bookies should just be kinder to punters and give them 7/2 without ending up with hands that smell like cheap Ukrainian metal from skanky tuppences given out.
The whole point of it is to make it easier for the casual gambler to have a punt and try and get more people into, what is in effect, a minority sport. The decimilised basis is far easier to grasp and compare. There will always be some traditionalists that want to keep things in the 19th century and still like to gamble with shillings and pence and, if they are daring, a guinea!!!
Surely the more people involved the better for the sport?
Agree with Drew, though this "minority" sport already gets more people through the gate each year than anything else bar football. Most of them go no more than twice, too. Rugby league, rugby union, cricket, golf etc are all miles behind. Apparently, British racing alone is bigger than global tennis in terms of turnover, revenue etc.
I'll probably think in fractions for as long as I live, but this is really quite a forward-thinking move by racing standards, as it is entirely aimed at recruiting the next generation of punters and racegoers even if it upsets some of the current one. It's not about dumbing down, it about ensuring that betting is no more complex than it needs to be.
I've always felt that one of racing's biggest problems is that people can't legally get fully involved until they are 18, and that's down to the Government, not the sport. A lot of habits are set for life by your mid-20s, and if racing doesn't catch them before that, it probably never will.