Minority sports need to band together with the FAI to demand their share of the spoils
by Caoimhín Rowland
Ire has been drawn upon a recent submission by the FAI to the government on the allocation of gambling revenue.
The report compiled by Dublin-based KHSK Economic Consultants has already been presented to the Department of Sport.
With the claim the betting levy generates €100 million a year, these funds are almost exclusively to the benefit of the horse racing and greyhound industries.
That's despite punters shifting their preference away from traditional markets and more toward football, Gaelic games and MMA.
My background itself comes from the bookmaking industry, having worked for some of the leading names in the game both at home and abroad.
Horse and greyhound racing are typically viewed as the bread and butter of bookies on these shores, but like so much of modern life, this is swiftly changing.
Have you ever wondered why there’s a soccer game on Monday, Thursday and most Friday nights?
While we’re well accustomed to midweek Premier League fixtures, League Cup mismatches or top European ties, us football fans once had space to breathe before the traditional weekend onslaught of Jeff Stelling’s spittle on Sky Sports News.
Simply put, more games spread throughout the week increases the likelihood of the targeted demographic (me and my peers of 18-30 year old males) placing a bet, with the promise of free bets, cash back on losses and 'influencers' posting their winnings.
Young lads are made to feel like fools for not getting in on this supposed never-ending gravy train.
Unless it’s Cheltenham week, you’re not going to get too many of that coveted demographic to download an app, deposit their hard-earned cash and punt on the 2.15 from Gowran Park or even the Prestbury Cup (greyhound racing's FA Cup final).
Believe me, I’m no Eddie Hobbs out here to lecture any soul on how they spend their cash. You’re free to splurge, spend or save on whatever you deem fit.
The most vocal supporters in Dáil Éireann of the lobbying group Greyhound Racing Ireland are the flat cap-wearing countryfolk cosplayers, including both Healy-Raes and Michael McGrath.
In the past they have stated their support of the greyhound racing industry in particular, with a common refrain: “Won’t somebody think of the poor people of rural Ireland?”
Us cratúrs here in Mayo don’t have a greyhound industry and possess land no Middle Eastern sheikh would allow his prized mare glance at, never mind train on.
So why then have the government decided to ring fence millions of public money, our money, for the sole benefit of these minority sports?
Like the habits of the modern day gambler, rural folk are changing too.
Take, for example, the fantastic Breaffy GAA women's rounders team, who are All-Ireland winners, the Mayo Bulls Ice Hockey team, whose numbers grow from strength to strength despite no actual ice hockey arena in this country, or even the long vaunted quest for a skate park in the county town – an Olympic sport now, as you may well know.
On the surface, rounders, ice hockey and skateboarding may not appear to be bastions of sport here in Mayo. Yet, their participation numbers and societal benefits dwarf that any dog race can offer.
Essentially, the opportunities in which to socialise, get active and escape from the mundanity of life are not found tracking dogs in jackets chasing mechanical hares.
Unfortunately, odds remain slim to none on this ever changing, but we have the means amongst ourselves to define rural Ireland and not the Punch-style caricature painted by tweed millionaires in Leinster House.
If I were a betting man I'd place my cash on combined forces, from a plethora of sports, to enact real change as to how the betting levy is distributed in this country.