Page 24 - June 2005 The Game

24 The Game, June 2005 Your Thoroughbred Racing Community Newspaper
Wireless Betting: Gameboy for Horse-Players
By Peter Gross
Andrew Macdonald has a toy I want very badly. Macdonald is the Vice-President of Business Development for the Woodbine Entertainment Group. Big title, but his latest gizmo fits easily into the palm of his average sized hand.
It's called, somewhat unimaginatively, HPIBET wireless. A Pocket PC that allows you do everything you can do on the internet, especially if you bet on the horses.
"You can see the horses' names. You can see current odds," says Macdonald, using a sleek stylus to
guide me from function to function. "You can see a list of the bets you placed today. You can queue wagers, put them in a shopping cart and hang on to them until just before post-time,
then spit them out one after another." Religious groups sing,
"He's got the whole world in his
hands!"
Fervent horseplayers can now chant,
"I've got the whole racetrack in my hands!"
A few years ago Autotote, which provides Woodbine's wagering system, devised the Tiny Tims,
machines about 6 inches square, to make life easier for the player. If you visit the HPIBET office on the second floor at Woodbine, you can try one out. Tiny Tims can take your bet, show you odds, and indicate your balance, but they're not wireless. To be used at the track, they required the customer to be sitting in s specific spot. The HPIBET wireless allows the horseplayer to be anywhere he wants to - at the track, at home, at work, or on the road and still get his bet in.
This is the latest in a wave of innovation that Woodbine has
spearheaded over the past ten years or so to help bring the game of horse- playing into the 21st century.
"We don't force you to come to the track," reasons Macdonald,
"We made a commitment to bring our product to people wherever they are as opposed to what it used to be like, forcing them to do business on our terms."
So, since the Stone Age of racing (the mid-80s), the racing fan has been blessed with off-track betting, simulcast wagering, telephone account, internet betting and 24 hour- a-day televised horse races. And now
wireless wagering in the palm of your hand.
Is that a racetrack in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?
Andrew Macdonald has more surprises. The HPIBET wireless can also be used to access race results. In fact, Macdonald brings up the third race prices from Aqueduct in less than 15 seconds. It's been official for about five minutes. This is very cool. Even at the track, finding out the results of previous races from other locales can be a challenge. But this gets even better. Macdonald makes a few gestures with his pointer and in seconds I can hear Dan Loiselle calling a race. A race that I'm watching on Macdonald's hand held.
So now I'm hooked. But I figure this needs a better name than HPIBET Wireless. How about Mini Mike? Handy Andy? And my favourite - Pocket Pete?
Macdonald shrugs as if to indicate that a cute name was not a considera- tion for this product. Well, even if it doesn't have an easy to remember handle, the wireless application can also be used on your phone.
"On a cell phone version, it's much slower," says Macdonald,
"It can't show you things like today's bets and it can't store your bets to place later. But if you don't want to listen to an integrated voice response system, when you use a telephone, you see the prompts rather than hear them."
As good and as convenient as the telephone wagering concept is, sometimes remembering the codes can compromise your capacity to place a bet as the horses are being loaded. By integrating HPIBET wireless into your phone, you will be given a choice of races, and bet types presented visually on the screen of your cell.
As for the pocket pc, it will deliver the goods anywhere you've got Wi-Fi or cellular signal; the way technology is going it's probably a matter of a few years until most cars have Wi-Fi capacity automatically built in. That's how to keep the kids occupied on those long road trips.
CONTINUED NEXT PAGE....
Owner Cam Allard along with Anson Stud Farm would like to Thank You for your support of A FLEETS DANCER in 2005
A FLEETS DANCER
Afleet - My Dream Come True, by Vice Regent
7-Time Stakes Winner - Canadian Champion - Millionaire
First Weanling Sells for $62,000 (US$) - Keeneland November
A Fleets Dancer Mares in Foal averaged $20,000 (US$) including 3 mares for more than $40,000 (US$)
A FLEETS DANCER is by AFLEET - one of the world’s top sires, AFLEET is also proving himself to be a sire of sires with his sons:
• Northern A Fleet - 1st crop to race 13% SW’s • Rizzi - 78% Winners. And AFLEET himself is in the top 40 broodmare sires in North America.
All this makes A FLEETS DANCER a genetic Goldmine!
With a Proven Race Record and over $1,000,000 in earnings before retiring sound
DON’T LOOK ANY FURTHER - STALLIONS JUST DON’T GET ANY BETTER
STALLION
A FLEETS DANCER
2005 Fee: $5,000
Nominated to Breeders’ Cup and Ontario Sire Stakes
Anson Stud Farm
905-584-4969 Fax: 905-584-5045 email: ansonstudfarm@netscape.net Inquiries to Sonja or Andy McKinnon
17655 Innis Lake Road, Caledon East, ON