Rajan Bala, one of a rare kind

 Turf Clubs should give serious attention to glitches

By Sharan Kumar

Ever since the turf clubs in India stopped using the satellites for telecasting races between centres and went for the P2P system of communication to relay races through the internet to cut costs, there have been many glitches. The streaming is not continuous and often, there is a shocking delay, with some racecourses getting the relay well after the race has been completed.

 

Recently the Madras Race Club had to refund all the bets of the last race of Mumbai racing because the relay of races did not sync with real-time. Even at Kolkata, the relay of the last race of Mumbai racing was yet to start but the race had been completed.

 

Our Kolkata correspondent reports: `` The Mumbai inter-venue betting in RCTC, witnessed a strange operation of live streaming of the last event starting much after the race results became common knowledge, through private channels. The RCTC bookmakers got a whiff of things and quickly shut down their operations. Under similar circumstances, the Madras Race Club had to refund all bets placed on the last race held in Mumbai. The matter has been referred to the Turf Authorities of India for remedial measures.’’

 

The point-to-point connection is a unicast connection. A dedicated link exists between each pair of sender and receiver. The system is not infallible. What is required is continuous monitoring to ensure that there are no issues. If the monitoring is not continuous, the glitches may not be noticed immediately and it can have disastrous consequences especially since betting is involved. In the past also there have been glitches due to technical problems or bad weather, but the clubs would immediately announce that due to unforeseen circumstances, the telecast of that particular race would not be available. The fear that is being expressed is whether anyone has been able to breach the encryption because the glitches have happened only in a few places. The maximum delay in transmission of races between centres is pegged at not more than three seconds.

 

Of late, racing enthusiasts are struggling to get the webcast despite paying the fees.

 

Even those who are getting the webcast of the races are also facing many issues. For one, everyone knows that there will be a transmission delay. If one doesn’t refresh the computers regularly, the time lag could increase. The problem faced by all those who depend on a webcast is apart from the delay, the relay is not continuous and it starts to buffer with the webcast getting stuck. The commentary and the live-action don’t match. Racing enthusiasts are facing this problem for a long time and are hoping that the authorities would address the issue but nothing much seems to have happened. Unfortunately, many of the racing officials themselves are in the dark. They don’t react to any query or criticism.

 

In clubs like Bangalore where the administration has been weakened due to interference by the committee members, the problems are much more. The club authorities don’t seem to believe in Murphy’s Laws that anything that can go wrong will go wrong and nothing is as easy as it looks. Everything takes longer time than you think it will. Nothing else explains the failure of the National Tote to take off. The then Chairman of BTC Uday Eswaran announced with much fanfare that the National Tote will be up and running by July last year. The present Chairman Shivakumar Khenny parroted the same words in his first press conference in the month of November. Without having any authority or position, Uday Eswaran announced the starting date pompously in a private auction sale in December. Till now there is no news about the National Tote.

 

The Bangalore Turf Club is yet to put its tote system in order. The club went for a new system spending more than Rs 4 crores. The window sellers are facing many issues. The system is reportedly not foolproof so much so that double dividends have been paid on certain occasions.

 

The Bangalore Tote system buckled under pressure during the Bangalore derby day racing. Several windows were not operational at OCBCs and at the race course, causing frustration to the punters who ended up not being able to punch the tickets. The question that has to be answered is whether the design of the system is capable of handling high-volume transactions. Evidently, this has had a bearing on the collections of the tote, with most of the punters now opting to back with the bookmakers, losing their faith in the efficiency of the tote. This will drive away tote punters to bookmakers and sound the death knell of the tote system.  

There is no transparency about the issues faced. One doesn’t know who is responsible for the double payout and who will bear the losses. There have been issues with the cross-verification of the tickets and the dividend declared. The output report at the end of the day’s races has often been proven to be incorrect. The club is struggling to reconcile matters such as tickets sold, dividends declared, shortfall or excess cash at the end of the day and take appropriate steps to correct the issues if any. When the club itself is facing problems despite spending huge amounts on personnel, how can a National Tote come about with BTC as the driving force? There is nobody to answer the valid questions. Come to think of the fact that Bangalore Turf Club was at one time doing a turnover of Rs 2000 crores in a year. Whatever happened to the people who led the show at that time with a proper understanding of technology?