Off-Track and Online: The Networked Spaces of Horse Racing

by Holly Kruse

Overview

How horse racing's pioneering use of communication and information networks helped shape the modern media, information, and leisure environment.

The horse racing industry has been a pioneer in interactive media, information networks, and their deployment. The race track and the off-track betting parlor offer interactive media environments that reconfigure the relationships among private and public space and presence and copresence. In this book, Holly Kruse explores how horse racing has used media over the last several decades, arguing that examining the history and context of horse racing and gambling gives us a clearer understanding of the development of data networks, media complexes, public entertainment, and media publics.

Kruse describes an enormous industry that depends on global information and communication flows made possible by a network linking racetracks, homes, off-track betting, farms, and auction sites. Racetrack architecture now allows for the presence of screens, most showing races from other locations. Online betting sites enable bettors to wager from home. Off-track betting facilities collect wagers on races from all over the country. Odds are set interactively through the pari-mutuel market system. Kruse considers the uses of public space, and its redefinition by public screens; the effect of interactive media on the racing industry, including networked, in-home betting; the “technopanic” over online poker and the popularity of in-home pari-mutuel wagering; and the use of social media by racing fans to share information and creative work with no financial payoff.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262332408
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	04/01/2016
Series:	The MIT Press
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	216
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Holly Kruse is Associate Professor in the Department of Communications at Rogers State University in Oklahoma.

Table of Contents

Preface vii

1 Introduction 1

2 Networked Markets 17

3 Racing's Public Spaces 43

4 Off-Track Betting, Media Use, and Social Interaction 77

5 The Internet and Interactive Television 103

6 The Domestication of Horse Race Betting 129

7 Social Media and Affective Networks 149

8 Reflections 167

Notes 175

References 177

Index 195

What People are Saying About This

Endorsement

This carefully researched study explores how horse racing has adapted to new media technologies, placing its recent evolution into a rich historical context. Kruse is to be applauded for giving racing the attention it deserves as it transitions to the social media age and for providing valuable insights to those interested in gambling, media, and technology.

—David G. Schwartz, Director, Center for Gaming Research, University of Nevada, Las Vegas; author of Roll the Bones: The History of Gambling

From the Publisher

The seemingly low-tech world of horse racing, we learn in this fascinating book, has long served as a test bed—and, sometimes, a hotbed—for innovations in communication and information technology. Moving from Victorian racetracks to off-track betting shops, contemporary 'racinos,' and the living rooms of online gamblers, Kruse approaches each site as an experiment with the new media of the day—from the telegraph to the telephone, mechanical 'totalizers' to computerized wagering software, simulcast screens to at-home interactive television. Off-Track and Online offers a novel and timely vantage on the ways in which digital media are reorganizing public and private life today.

—Natasha Dow Schüll, author of Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas

This carefully researched study explores how horse racing has adapted to new media technologies, placing its recent evolution into a rich historical context. Kruse is to be applauded for giving racing the attention it deserves as it transitions to the social media age and for providing valuable insights to those interested in gambling, media, and technology.

—David G. Schwartz, Director, Center for Gaming Research, University of Nevada, Las Vegas; author of Roll the Bones: The History of Gambling

David G. Schwartz

This carefully researched study explores how horse racing has adapted to new media technologies, placing its recent evolution into a rich historical context. Kruse is to be applauded for giving racing the attention it deserves as it transitions to the social media age and for providing valuable insights to those interested in gambling, media, and technology.

Editorial Reviews

[T]his book is a unique examination of the horse racing industry and its place at the forefront of networked communication. Kruse's description of horse racing culture convincingly positions gamblers as an influential group in a networked society.

—Ethan Tussey, Media Industries Journal

From the Publisher

[T]his book is a unique examination of the horse racing industry and its place at the forefront of networked communication. Kruse's description of horse racing culture convincingly positions gamblers as an influential group in a networked society.

—Ethan Tussey, Media Industries Journal

Reviews

[T]his book is a unique examination of the horse racing industry and its place at the forefront of networked communication. Kruse's description of horse racing culture convincingly positions gamblers as an influential group in a networked society.

Media Industries Journal - Ethan Tussey