October
DecemberZero-sum game
Marc Lambourne from The Punters Show was a guest on Radio Sport National’s Racing Ahead on Thursday December 6. Speaking of punters and in-depth form analysis, he said the following: "We’re a community, we’re all trying to win, the cleverer we all become the better off we’ll be," or words to that effect.
In saying this, Lambourne fosters the same illusion that all such promoters of form analysis do, namely that an overall increase in punting smarts helps the punting population as a whole. The truth is rather this: the cleverer we all become the more everything stays the same!
Punting is a zero-sum game (as Lambourne must well know), therefore the only possible way of winning is at the expense of others.
If everyone is spoon-fed insights from experts like Lambourne, Lester and co, then no one gains; the intelligence of the majority may be marginally increased, but the only effect this has is to keep the structure of the zero-sum game precisely the same. Or, perhaps more accurately, it actually reduces slightly the edge that the tiny minority of genuine winners have. In effect it only democratises losses across the punting population.
Then why promote form analysis? The answer seems obvious — it will help to maintain and increase turnover, which is good for racing’s financial bottom line. No argument with that. But it also helps Lambourne’s bank balance (he charges for his premium service).
Parkville (Vic)