The thoughts I’m about to write down are part hopium and part what I imagine could happen with Zed Run in the future.
Let me set the scene.
My step father was a Greyhound owner/trainer for over 40 years.
He would take me to the track as a kid and that’s where I got my first taste of racing and sports betting.
We would drive for hours to race dogs at regional tracks all around NSW.
These regional tracks are pretty small but what keeps them going in part is the prize money provided by the Sports betting agencies especially TAB. (Australia’s largest bookmaker)
Minimum first prize on any day is $1,500 regional and in the city your dog will take home at least $5,000 for the win.
There are also regional tournaments for $25,000 each.
Without the juicing of the prize pools the trainers wouldn’t come and the track would die a pretty quick death.
But why do TAB and the bookies do this?
Well it’s a win win situation because if you’re a TAB track your races are broadcast live on SKY Racing and TAB run markets on your races as do the other bookies.
Basically they get paid and they get paid BIG.
Sports betting is a global industry netting $106 Billion a year and its growing at 11% per annum.
Any market that bookies can take bets on that comes with a large inbuilt fanbase is a no brainer and Zed would be a perfect play for them once it up scales.
Not to mention the fact that they need zero new infrastructure to start broadcasting Zed.
Once the game is running smoothly, in theory they can just point the stream to their current broadcast and lay their branding and odds over the top.
Obviously there is some legal hurdles regarding introducing a new game to the sports betting market but that’s a topic for another day.
So let’s say the reason Play Up invested $20 million in to Zed Run is to gain exclusive access to the Zed bookmaking market for their 3 or 4 online betting portals.
Thinking back to the arrangement NSW Greyhound Racing has with TAB and Co and then lets say Zed and Play Up come to a similar arrangement.
Let’s say Zed numbers reach 1 million users and along with that a thriving sports betting market grows around it.
I feel we could reach a point of having far more punters on Zed than actual players just like real horse racing.
In fact a few years ago I was in a TAB owned by my step sister and I noticed digital greyhound races on the screen and I said “who would bet on that”.
She told me a lot of people do.
So lets do some guesswork.
Imagine these numbers for future Zed racing buy ins vs prize money;
A $2.50 buy in for a $100 purse. (class 4/5)
A $10 buy in for a $500 purse. (class 3/2)
A $100 buy in for $3,000 purse. (class 1)
To keep it simple lets stick with these 3 purses.
Every stable owner will be racing as much as they can with those prizes wouldn’t they!
Let’s say in the future Zed is doing 10,000 races a day. (4,000 $2.50 buy in, 4,000 $10 buy in and 2,000 $100 buy in)
Total of $6,125,000 in pay outs per day from bookies juicing up the purses.
Sounds like a ridiculous amount but stick with me and I’ll put that in perspective using Greyhounds as the example again.
In Australia $4Billion a year is wagered on 40,000 greyhound races.
Averaged out the bookies are taking in $100,000 a race.
Makes juicing up the prize money look like chump change huh?
So if you own a sports betting company that’s competing with Bet365 for a small piece of the NBA finals wagers and you can’t get noticed in a crowded market then this is a no brainer.
A sports betting market you can have exclusively with a high volume of races ready for betting.
Plus massive community engagement from the Zed stables and fans.
Now taking in to account that $100,000 a race figure and the bookies will want you to race…a lot!
Easiest way to achieve that is to up the prize money and bring in more stables.
If things play out this way I imagine on top of the standard races for prizes there would also be tournaments for major cash prizes once or twice a year.
That sort of thing brings in the best horses, the biggest punters and the most eye balls.
Then there would be brand sponsors looking to capitilise on the popularity of the sport.
Perhaps the Mercedes Benz Classic where the top 1,000 horses compete for a brand new S Class.
Or the McDonalds trophy where you enter and race your donkey for a lifetime supply of McDonalds nuggets.
I’m sure there will even be individual sponsorship deals for the best of the best.
In part that’s why I’m playing the long game.
The aim is to try and build a quality stable over the coming months and years.
I want Blockchain Bloodline to be able to produce consistent high quality thoroughbreds that kick ass on the track.
So Im just racing for fun at this stage, my main investment and goal is long term breeding.
If things play out even close to what we have discussed then a champion horse could be life changing and even a rough stayer that can run a couple of places a week could be a good earner in despite not having a very good ROI now.
Not to mention the re-sale values in this scenario.
These horses can breed and race forever, that’s a hell of a value proposition!
Anyhow I’ll wrap it up now.
I hope that fired up your imagination.
Zed Run is a great game now but the potential of what it could be in 2, 5 and 10 years is mind blowing.
See you at the races!