I'd like to chime in about how, even if you give NBC the pass because of a show directed more to the casual fan, that ESPN certainly should be doing a better job.

BitPlayer has it exactly right about the morning line odds scenario too. I had some futures postitions on a few of the the horses in the Preakness and thus was very interested to see the early betting trends. Not only did they not even mention the early betting Friday (one had to wait until hours later on the bloodhorse or thoroughbred times website to find out that Smarty was getting hammered and thus was a lock to close less than even money...when he was much more than that at most offshore places), but Saturday, as BP says, they waited FOREVER to finally give us updated odds.

Absolutely unacceptable. It disgusts me that such a simple thing, which is really in the public's interest, as it would give them a more accurate account of reality (what's being bet as opposed to some idiots morning line...which are horrible estimations anyways as they always have waaaay too much juice built into them), that such a simple thing could not be shown as soon as possible.

You'd think they'd WANT to give this information as it would enhance the quality of their telecasts.

I will say this though about ESPN, the blimp shots do rock, they are just absolutely fabulous at conveying more information about how the race was run. And excepting the 50% of the time that Kenny Mayne attempts his dry humour that, while it works well in other situations (see his NFL pieces), just does not work on live racing telecasts, that in general the announcers ESPN have (especially Randy Moss) are about a gazzillion times better than the fools at NBC (Costas being the notable and obvious exception).

Tom Hammond and Charlsie Canty...I mean my god...is it any wonder that racing has had problems getting viewers with such incompetant and just plain bad announcers.

Even with the big ratings NBC has been generating since it took over triple crown coverage a few years ago from ABC, just imagine how much better it could even be if they'd simply just hire say Randy Moss and Kurt Hoover instead of the absolute excrement that they now have on display.



Post Edited (05-18-04 21:40)