Heads in the sport seem to believe that greyhound racing can emulate the success of darts and bring itself back from the brink of being forgotten —but is that a dream or reality?
Dog racing means stag dos, hen dos, cheap pints, and an affordable night out. On a Friday night in Romford, the sand track is sprayed with water and lit up by flood lights as people gather in the stands and by the bar, ready to watch six greyhounds sprint around the track for 30 seconds at 10-minute intervals.
It’s impressive — these dogs are strong and ridiculously fast. Blink, and you miss it, or, like me, you might end up following the hare around the track, confused about what you’re supposed to be watching.
There’s an old-school charm to this sport. Apart from the renovations at Romford, not much has changed. Spectator numbers may have dwindled, but the fundamentals remain the same.
Since New Zealand banned the sport in early December, only four countries worldwide still allow greyhound racing. In the UK, the future of the sport is in doubt, with renewed calls for a ban pushing it back under scrutiny.
Mark Moisley, commercial director of the Greyhound Board of Great Britain (GBGB), insists the decision in New Zealand is “politically motivated” and disregards the actual welfare data, which he claims shows year-on-year improvement for the dogs’ welfare.
As the UK approaches 100 years of greyhound racing, what was once the UK’s second most popular sport is a shadow of its former self, while the sport’s leaders believe it can return to its former glory.
Moisley proudly claims that “greyhound racing is in the top ten sports in the UK,” though the source of this statistic is unclear. The closure of tracks nationwide and decreasing spectator numbers suggest it’s a sport in decline.
Lord David Lipsey, a board member of Premier Greyhound Racing (PGR), suggested in an interview last year that greyhound racing could emulate the recent success of darts. This is not something that can be achieved easily, with there being multiple problems that need fixing in the sport.
Tracks are no longer full. If you check any race card at any track, you’ll often find races with fewer than six dogs — sometimes only four or five. According to GBGB, this is due to retired dogs not being rehomed, resulting in overcrowded kennels and an inability to supply enough dogs for races.
“The knock-on effect of that is that bookmakers see a direct impact on the betting for that particular race, which is severely reduced,” Moisley explains. “Less money is bet, so bookmakers bring in less revenue, and GBGB gets less funding to put towards dog welfare.”
“It wasn’t the second most popular sport in the country for no reason back in the 50s and 60s”
Mark Moisley
This shortage is also damaging for PGR, which streams the races with its partner, Sky Sports. “There’s too much racing at the moment,” says Gary Nash of PGR. “This leads to a lower quality product. What we want to do is reduce the number of races across the sport in the UK.”
PGR is one of two broadcasting companies involved in greyhound racing, and they recognise something needs to change for them to grow the sport.
“We haven’t lost that aspiration to emulate darts,” says Nash. “I honestly think we can get to where darts are if we have a single media rights organisation. You can then plough all your money into promotion and marketing, but at the moment, if we do that, we’re also unintentionally helping our competitor.”
Moisley claims the product is already perfectly suited to modern audiences: “We already have, by definition, a product that fits with what the younger demographic is looking for.”
Unlike cricket, which adapted with formats like ‘The Hundred’, greyhound racing has little room for reinvention. After all, there’s not much you can change about six dogs running a lap around an oval track.
Gary Nash highlights its simplicity as an advantage: “It’s a perfect medium because it’s 30 seconds. You place your bets, enjoy the entertainment, and then seven to ten minutes later, there’s another race to keep the excitement going.”
These fast, 30-second races also lend themselves well to short-form content on platforms like Instagram. However, whether younger generations can be convinced to visit the tracks is another question.
The most lucrative aspect of the business may not be at the tracks but rather the casual flutters of mobile gamblers and the spending of those with gambling addictions at betting shops.
When I left Romford races, I was £5 down and unsure whether I had witnessed anything worth writing about. I was left with the impression that if the sport were to be banned, it might barely be missed.
They may want to try to emulate the success of darts, but it doesn’t evoke the excitement of a darts match, where the crowd goes wild for a nine-dart finish in a crescendo of built-up suspense. Racing is only exciting if there is money on it, the potential to win or lose, and, typical of gambling, you mainly lose.
The best advice I was given that night was from a small Spanish man called Gio: “If he shits before the race, he’s a winner.” That’s what your odds boil down to.
“It wasn’t the second most popular sport in the country for no reason back in the 50s and 60s,” says Moisley. “People loved the sport, and the sport hasn’t changed. It’s still six dogs running around the track, and the thrill of the race is exactly as it was.”
Perhaps that statement is more telling than he realises about the current state of greyhound racing today.
Featured image by Jimmy Hughes-Brown.