The following are the suggested mechanics of the promotion. If you wish to alter these to suit your venue, please outline your suggested changes in your promo proposal brief.

• Local Males aged 30+
• Racing enthusiasts
• Blue Collar

A Calcutta auction is an open auction held in conjunction with a golf tournament, horse race or similar contest with multiple entrants. It is popular in backgammon, the Melbourne Cup, and college basketball pools during March Madness. The promotion is designed to encourage group interest with potent prize pools in a sporting event or popular tournament.

• POS
• Large White Board or Black Board
• Envelopes for Money allocation
• Assistant - best to get local buy in

• As per usual TAB setup
  

• A Calcutta is run in 2 parts - a Draw (Raffle) and an Auction.

  Tickets in the Calcutta are sold in the weeks or days leading up to the Calcutta with the proceeds of the ticket sales forming the initial part of the overall prize pool. On the night of the Calcutta each horse in the Calcutta is raffled off usually in numerical order of the field, however it can also be done from least favoured runner to favourite. The benefit of winning a horse in the draw is that you then receive half of the horse’s sale price in the auction.

  After the Draw has taken place it is usually a good idea to have a short break to allow the punters some time to form their strategy for the auction

  Auction
  After the Draw the horses are then Auctioned off it is usually a good idea to have someone give a little form on each horse before it is auctioned. This can be done by a knowledgeable local or by the manager on duty from the form guide. When a horse sells, half of the sale price goes to the person who drew the horse while the remaining half is added to the prize pool. The benefit of purchasing a horse in the Auction is that you can win part of the prize pool if your horse finishes in the money,

  The total Prize pool
  The final prize pool should consist of Money from initial ticket sales + half of total sales from the Auction. A good way to split the pool is usually 70% to 1st 20% to 2nd and 10% to 3rd

  If you are selling tickets into the draw in the days or weeks leading up to the Calcutta, you will need to speak to your AM about how to bank this money.

  After the race, allocate the prize pool accordingly and notify winners if they are not already present.

• 1st Place - 70% if the prize pool
• 2nd Place - 20% of the prize pool
• 3rd Place - 10% of the prize pool

Suggested marketing initiatives are outlined below. Not all will be appropriate to your venue, however please suggest as many options as you feel appropriate in you promotion proposal.

• POS
  
• WEBSITE
  
• EFLYER/SMS
  
• UP SELL FROM STAFF & MANAGEMENT
  
• FOCUS ON LARGE PUNTING PERIODS - I.E PROMOTE THE CALCUTTA AND SELL TICKETS IN THE WEEKS LEADING UP TO THE ACTUAL DAY

• Get tickets on sale a few weeks out from the event.
• Encourage syndicates getting groups to by large volumes of tickets is a good way to boost your prize pool, it also gives punters a bigger budget when bidding in the auction
• Wait until the Auction is completed before money changes hands, once the auction is complete ask all purchases to come up and pay for their horses. Once this is complete, then ask people who drew horses to come and collect their money
• it is usually a good idea to have some envelopes handy as not everyone who bought a ticket will necessarily be there on the night to collect their prize
• You are going to need some help - get one or two locals to help out as there is a lot to do and they will love it, you will need spotters for the auction, and someone to do all the writing on the board
• Get a large White board or black board - you will need to rule it into a table as per the below. Update this table as you go at first with your Draw and then during the Auction, use the prize pool column to keep a running total of the prize pool

• Distribute some sheets with the above table printed with the final field on them so that punters can keep there own record of the progress of the draw and auction.
  

Example

• POS = $78.55 (2 x A3, 1 x A1, 1 x A0)
  White Board = Please speak to your AM for budget allocations here. These can be purchased from office works in varying sizes and prices