Racing Post – I’m Out

[Cav]

Got roped back into a sub for the RP last November I think, on a discount for three months, then the full whack after that. As usual I forgot to call them and cancel it after the three months had expired, but I’ve done it now. And under its present guise I doubt I’ll be back.

My major issue with the Racing Post, is the price. Members Club Ultimate costs over 40 euro a month in Ireland, that’s three and half to four times more expensive than a monthly sub to most daily newspapers.

So for over forty quid as a form product, there is no draw information, which is unbelievable really this day and age, of course no sectional data, and its fairly standard for them to cover only half to three quarters of the field with post race analysis comments. Nuance in the performance of horses further down the field is simply not available. The form analysis section of the RP has barely changed in decades, there’s been no innovation, its tired and is now surpassed by many alternative form offerings, some of which are free. Perhaps its my imagination, but the Spotlight’s do seem a bit more detailed at the moment, but that content is available for free elsewhere.

There is very little attempt made to educate the punter. Keith Melrose does a good article once a week (although more sporadic lately) and that’s it. They did an excellent ‘Masterclass’ series some time back, but all trace of it seems to have vanished from the website.

Otherwise from a punting perspective its endless tipping and race preview articles, pre-race trainer quotes (usually of almost no consequence) and that’s yer lot.

Its simply not worth the money as a form tool.

Absolutely understand the RP probably derive a substantial proportion of their revenue from bookmakers, and need to tread carefully at times. However as the industry’s newspaper, its almost complete failure to act as a meaningful watchdog (a duty of good journalism) of how that industry has and is conducting itself, is partly responsible for the UK governments current intervention into gambling spend, and is leading to the increasingly unwarranted intrusion of the bookmakers into our private affairs. And that’s only going to get worse imo. There’s been somewhat of an improvement in more critical coverage in that particular area recently, but it still feels sporadic and too little too late. There’s no shortage of articles from columnists outraged on punters behalf when the bookmakers are on the line for a multi-leg gamble however….Going forward the RP need to get a whole lot more proactive in this area. It will ultimately be beneficial for bookmakers too imo. The current imbalance in coverage sits badly with me.

What else….most big racing news stories are covered adequately elsewhere, many of the RP interviews still fawn and doff at a level that never makes said interview in any way too compelling and in fairness the Sports and Bloodstock sections are largely unknown to me.

The search function on the website is a considerable annoyance. None of the journalists have a link to their articles (something that’s a standard in most places), so you must go to the search box, put ‘Keith Melrose’ in there in a bid to find locate his Friday article….then its needle and haystack time (currently 846 matches). It is just annoying.

Lee Mottershead is a fine journalist. Brave, clearly has the best interests of the game at heart, and does his job with a conscience. I enjoy Riche Forristal, Dave Jennings, Maddy Playle and Bill Barber. Chris Cook is a huge addition, one of the best. The increased focus on diversity and mental health is welcome and needed. I’d pay a monthly sub to read their content, something along the lines of the ten to twelve quid a standard newspaper online subscription costs these days.

But at over forty quid a month, in its current guise…I’m out.

[rollotommasi]

In comparison to the paper version there is some value in the price if going with the online subscription however all points mentioned above are valid.
As a news aggregator it is probably still the market leader in the Uk/Ire albeit the content is generally quite superficial. Im sure there is some research based data to inform the RP’s general strategy for content they are challenging their staff to provide and engagement through their media platforms however.

On a side note, as a formbook there is surely some potential for data mining customer usage via the sponsor/bookmaker relationship of the site.
What value and how to interpret the value of such data might be open for question but if a sportsbook can see when an account has entered a stake on a betslip without clicking submit and, in theory, adjust the odds then there is a possible space to do some work on things like customer horse tracker/ analysis of traffic for particular races

[Ben_Bernanke]

Do you now need to be a member to read race write ups on RP? Can’t view them any more!

[robnorth]

Ben, you need to be a member to read the ‘Analysis’ of each race though race comments are still visible.

I use the RP for calculating my ratings and can do so as long as I access previous ORs and current ORs for runner being rated and previous winner. If ever that went ‘pay per view’ I’d use combination of the BHA and IHRB databases.

[Cav]

Timeform Race Passes reduced from £75 to £30 a month from today.

A superior form tool imo.

[cormack15]

That is a fair old reduction in price Cav, is that a permanent change or an offer?

[Cav]

Looks permanent, David. Only condition that I can see is that it applies only to monthly recurring subscriptions that must be payed through PayPal.

[Author]

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