japan's new wagers

[breezin']

Does anyone out there actually bet on Japanese racing in Japan and are you aware there are two new wagers coming out soon? At long last, Japan is coming out with a couple "exotic" bets. Anyone interested?

[specialweek]

Yes, Yes and Yes..........

[imaufo]

yes? Yes!

[Scarper]

what are the bets?
i heard they where just trios and tierces...hardly exotic!

[specialweek]

Actually it is just an exacta and a trio and believe my Japan standards these are exotic

[breezin']

Yes, right, the two new ones are an exacta and a trio and yes, by JRA standards, these are as exotic as they come, which by other countries' standards is far from exotic. That's why I put "exotic" in quotes.
Anyone who can read Japanese should take a look at Nikkei's column this week. It's on the new wagers. Here's the address:
http://mfg07.nikkei.co.jp/keiba/column/column.html
Here also is the JRA site for the new bets, a FAQ in Japanese:
http://www.jra.go.jp/baken_guide/qa.html
I don't see anything in English yet.
The exacta is called "umatan" and the trio is called "sanrenpuku."
Both will begin at Fukushima June 15 and be available until July 7. They then will be available nationwide from July 13.

[Ant]

Can anyone tell me: is Wide (or Quinella Place as in the case of Hong Kong) popular among Japanese punters since its inception?

[breezin']

Ant,
Interesting question, one that prompted me to look at data from some of the recent GI races. The Wide bet looks to consistently take about 12-14% of the entire money wagered, which makes it a close tie with the bracket quinella for second-most-popular wager. The horse number quinella is the most popular. This tends to attract between 70-75 % of the total money down. The bracket quinella usually is a bit less popular than the Wide, depending on if there's an overwhelming favorite, in which case, the bracket quinella tends to be less popular. This wager also tends to comprise about 10-12% of the money bet, except when there's a strong favorite. Then it can drop to about 7%.
Hope that answers your question.

[Ant]

Thanks breezin'.
I was wondering if the introduction of Wide has generate a significant increase in overall betting turnover. My guess is it will at most generate a few percent but not much. I presume most of the money betting on Wide is coming from money originally putting into quinella say. I question whether the introduction of trio and exacta will generate extra business for JRA at all.
Speaking of the exotic bets, when my Japanese friends are attending the Hong Kong races last December, I have a hard time explaining all the different betting pools available to them. They seem to have a hard time understanding bets that will involve more than one race eg. triple trio, six-up. I suppose Hong Kong has the greatest variation of bets available among the major racing countries.
I will be in Korea the coming week so maybe I can check out the racing there. Anyone out there who have Korea racing expertise?
[ June 06, 2002: Message edited by: Ant ]

[breezin']

Yes Ant, that would be hard to tell, if the Wide has created more betting or if people have just moved from another pool. Turnover is still dropping but who's to know what it would have been like without Wide. I don't think though that those who bet horse number quinella usually would bet Wide though. I usually see people turn their noses up at Wide. Yes, I can imagine all the truly exotic bets would bewilder Japanese and I don't think the hardcore bettor would really be interested in things like daily doubles and such. Exactas, trifectas, yes, but I could be wrong. In any case, the added wagers will make things more interesting and no doubt generate some big returns, which is good for attracting people. A 4 million yen return on a 100 yen trifecta bet the other day at one of Tokyo's local tracks really had me itching to get some money down!

[breezin']

Did anybody try out the new bets at Fukushima?

[specialweek]

Have yet to have a dabble but the 10th race paid some incredible 584,000 yen for 100 yen investment in the newly introduced trio.
I believe it is the highest single payout by the JRA.
The rest of the trio divs did seem OK but I will watch for awhile before proceeding.