New TAB Internet Site Problems

One of our Clients, Paul Harper has forwarded his outrage to the TAB about the controversy with the TAB's new website and the level of Service to the "Average Punter"....

N.S.W. TAB's Letter to Paul:
On the Road to Better Betting

"Dear MR HARPER,
Almost a year ago Tabcorp's Wagering Division launched the new RaceTAB and TAB Sportsbet websites. These new sites combined betting information such as news, scoreboards, standings and, most importantly, odds with detailed betting functionality.

The new websites have been very successful in combining this information and delivering it efficiently to all our Account customers.

Since the launch we have spent considerable time and effort listening to our customers and refining the websites to ensure that we provide the best service we can. We are now in a position where the new websites are providing a service that is far superior to the old sites and we cannot continue to run both the new sites and the old sites (including NetTAB).

From Monday March 6, 2006 the old RaceTAB, old SportsTAB and NetTAB betting sites will no longer be available.

However, we are currently working hard to ensure that we provide all the current services from the old sites on the new sites.

On Monday February 27, 2006 we will launch two new services on Racetab.com.au.

Amendments
A link on the Today's Racing page of RaceTAB.com.au will show a complete list of the day's amendments: Scratching and Jockey changes will now be summarised on one page and updated throughout the racing day.
DFS in PDF
The print view from the DFS pop-up window for a race will now show the DFS in PDF format. The layout of the page is exactly the same as you get on NetTAB. You can download the latest Adobe® Reader® software here.
These are two major enhancements that bring the new sites up to par with the service you currently receive on the old sites.



In the lead up to Monday March 6 we will announce via email the launch of the Amendments and DFS enhancements.

In the meantime we have updated the RaceTAB and TAB Sportsbet online demo tools. You can access them by clicking here. These allow you to step through all the enhanced betting, account management and help centre features so you can become more familiar with these features prior to using them.

My team of developers has been working very hard over the past weeks to provide these enhancements ahead of schedule. Should you have any further queries please visit the TAB Help Centre.
Sincerely, Mike Boyd- Internet Channel Manager"

Paul's Response to experincing the new site changes:
(Letter to TAB)

"Friday I received your email outlining the discontinuance of the old site on March 6. Having decided beforehand that I was going to use the old website to put my quinella bets on and had deposited money into my account for this purpose, I thought that I had better have a go of the new site after that email.

This became a very frustrating exercise and a disaster in terms of "betting efficiency".

I have ADSL through Primus and have little or no trouble with other sites BUT Saturday's attempts at placing bets on your site was atrocious. My idea was to have 3 horses in a quinella or 1 horse to stand out from 3 others. I started from the first page, after login, and this worked, somewhat OK, though a bit slow as it takes 20+ seconds to load a page before you can use it or 30+ secs if you want all info. Placing bets to the "Bet Slip" when having more than one bet on the same race meant I had to wait valuable seconds before everything reloads, after you do anything and before I could go to the "Bet Slip" to put the bets on. As I was betting race to race so that I could see the prices, my troubles really began when I tried to put separate bets with differing amounts on each of the combinations. One of these bets took 5min and 50 secs to complete and I only got the bets on because the race was running late.

After half the days races were done in this manner I decided to try the "Express Betting" page only to have this lock up on me a number of times with "Refresh" not working and clicking on the race at the left-hand side of the screen also doing nothing (Occasionally I noticed that the bottom of my screen would say "Error on page"). One attempt of hitting the "Back" button resulted in a bet being placed on the "Bet Slip" twice. Of course this slowed things down further when I had to delete this. The only way to fix the lockups was to close down the page and log back in. From this I ended up missing 2 or 3 bets of which 2 won, angering me no end.

I eventually gave up on this "NEW AND IMPROVED" site and went back to the old site which is EXTREMELY fast compared to the new one even on the normal betting page or faster still if one was to use the "Expert" page.

Your email below states -

"These are two major enhancements that bring the new sites up to par with the service you currently receive on the old sites."

If these enhancements bring the new site up to par with the old site then the old site was more superior, or is still as good as the new one and should not be decommissioned.

1. I proved on Saturday to myself that the old site is better, and taking into consideration that I have never had this trouble with other betting sites, then the new one needs major work before getting rid of the old one. Clearly, if other customers have troubles like this, then you will lose those customers.

2. The old sites "expert betting mode" is far superior to the new sites "expert betting mode" as there is no need to load after choosing a different meeting. Hence, the new site is SLOWER.

3. The old sites "Expert Mode" brings up your list of bets after submission for you to check BUT at the new site you have to click on "Details" to get them. Gosh, tell me if this isn't SLOWER.

4. Why is there not an "Approximate Dividends" page for quinellas, exactas and doubles? One is already betting blind at home now with the lessening of teletext services that have been discontinued by the TAB. You could make up for this by supplying these approximate pages with bet facilities attached to them on the internet.

5. How about a "Dutch" betting facility attached to "Win, Place, Quinellas, Exactas, Any 2 and Doubles" based on their approximate dividends at time of bet? This would get a lot of customers in, as it would make it easier for them to bet, as they would not be wasting time working out how much to place on different combinations.

The TAB appears to have made it harder to get a bet on. Is this "Problem Gambling" initiative or is the TAB trying to shoot itself in the foot? Technology means that things should get easier/faster but this is not the case with your new site. If people don't get bets on then NO ONE WINS. No tax, no commissions, no flow on to the racing industry. Maybe, just a saving for the customer who doesn't pick a winner but anger when missing the winners he/she has picked (More "downside" than "Up").

In NSW we have to put up with dividends constantly paying less than others states on MORE THAN 33% of occasions, so it does not surprise me that people look to bookmakers or betting exchanges for value. It is hard enough to win based on that alone than to have to put up with a site that is slow and/or difficult to use.

I would hazard a guess that the web site was designed by computer boffins with insufficient input from TRUE punters (there is no need to prove me wrong on this assumption).

With the amalgamation of the 2 largest totes in Australia (The World?) you have the opportunity to more than battle any competition from some foreign betting exchange by pushing harder to get joint pools across all 3 TABs and provide a service that is 2nd to none. There appears to be no incentive to stick with the TAB when I could be winning more elsewhere, which is the hopeful result of all punters. This is the name of the game "WIN MORE", "WINNING", "MAKING A PROFIT", not "Look at our beautiful web site"

I look forward to your reply and am willing to discuss any issue in regards to your web site and/or what punters really want."
Paul Harper