Amazon Downs?
by Trey Nosrac
We were five minutes behind schedule for takeoff. A cherubic guy who looked like Newman, the postal guy from Seinfeld, was seated on the aisle. I had the window seat. We were on a flight to Orlando. The plane doors closed for takeoff. Newman and I were happy to find the middle seat unoccupied. We were unhappy when the PA system cackled, and the pilot’s voice filled the cabin, “Sorry for the delay, I forgot my keys.”
The passengers laughed.
“Seriously, folks, we have a weird red light blinking up here in the cockpit, so unbuckle and tilt your seat back until further notice.”
The passengers groaned.
Newman pushed up his armrest and introduced himself as Edgar Felton, a manufacturer’s representative from Kingfisher, OK. I gave my name, and we shared a fist bump. He was one of those people you can joke around with, and when I asked him if his nickname was Eggy or Gar, he said, “Either was an improvement.”
As often happens when I have a captive audience, I began to preach about the fun, fortunes, and misfortunes of harness horse racing, including videos from my phone. Edgar explained he had never seen a harness race. However, he quickly picked up on my babbling and asked intelligent questions.
When I took a break from my racing dissertation, he asked me an odd question: “Do you know anything about Rivet and Stone and Beam?”
“No, but it’s too many letters to be a racehorse.”
“It’s a furniture line; one of many companies Amazon launched. Some products and services can be high tech and futuristic, but most are old products getting a new face, such as furniture, books, jewelry, newspapers, publishing, or clothing.”
“I smell a harness racing parable?”
He smiled. “You can’t smell a parable, but you can sense a looming parable.”
“Is this a writing class?”
“It’s more of a business class.” He rotated his hands with his fingers like the letters L to make an invisible picture frame. “Imagine that Amazon decided to go into the business of harness racing.”
“Oh, this is a science fiction business class.”
“If Amazon knocks on the doors of, oh, let’s say Alabama, with the news that they are contemplating setting up a gambling business, those doors will swing open.”
“A new track in a new land?”
“You said there are only about a dozen states that race due to gambling laws. I’m guessing state boundaries in a cloud-based world will not hold, and an old product in a new territory would be an advantage for Amazon. They want a clean slate, and they loathe intermediaries. They thrive on being a closed loop between their product and their customers. They use an approach that will seem alien to horse racing gamblers, starting with the customer and working backward.”
“Get real. Why would a big player in the technology marketplace have the slightest interest in a small sport like harness racing?”
“You know the answer, the same reason they make diapers or publish books. Should any big player do the math and project a revenue stream, especially a repeatable stream, that player will be interested. Sports gambling is a product. If Amazon got into racing, they would sell a good product at a good price with great service.”
“A racetrack?”
“Buying land and building a racetrack would not be difficult for a company that builds spaceships. They could build a track indoors if they wanted, and they might do something like make it a studio sport. Securing favorable laws is not difficult for states scrambling for revenue. Setting up gambling sites and online platforms for companies that handle a huge portion of today’s e-economy would be easy.”
I gave a dismissive wave, “You make horse racing seem like building toilet seats or selling insurance.”
Edgar grew enthusiastic and sounded a bit like a maniac. “It’s a new world, Trey, a world that grows newer every day. If Amazon were responsible for servicing gamblers who purchase their racing product, it would make money and harvest essential customer data. If the prospectus is solid, venture capitalists keenly watching online gambling might get in. Horses, horsemen, horsewomen, trainers, a new Track? – If Amazon builds it, they will come.”
I was about to mention several problems with his proposal when the pilot’s voice interrupted.
“Hello folks, we’re cleared for takeoff. I found my keys. They were under the empty beer bottles.”
