The issue with horse racing is...

Blatant advertising: the Betfair Community is a lot of things, but it’s not Exchange and Mart or a free ads newspaper. Don’t use your posts and blogs to advertise or promote anything which would be deemed commercial activity.

Guilty of plugging the website, not guilty of promoting commercial activity.  Genuinely looking for like minded people to engage in a fun, free, competition.  I appreciate your concern but I can assure that is not what it's about.  The aim of Racing Silks Dream Yard is to open up horse racing as a sport to a wider community by breaking down the stigmas attached.  If you visit the site you will not find a single commercial entity - simply analyse and insights and regular healthy competition.

Not my concern, I couldnt really care, it was taken from b/f guidelines, can you explain if as you say  " You will not find find a single commercial entity " What the SUBSCRIBE button was for on every page. ?

The subscription is a free newsletter email.  It's used to remind players of upcoming events and provides competition updates - maybe that should be made clearer on the site.  What do you think of the concept - literally been up and running since November covering the big jumps events.  Trying to get the word out there now the website is up and running .

It's would be great to get feedback from horse racing fans.  It's a game I developed with my brothers to compete against each other around 5 years ago.  Started of just doing Cheltenham, then Ascot. We really enjoy it.

It doesn’t look bad. Can’t really tell what you have to do at a quick glance, but I guess it’s similar to Fantasy Football, or even the Fantasy Horse racing that the Telegraph used to do. On there you picked out five jockeys, five trainers and a horse in each race. Points were awarded on an SP basis.

I may have a go. It’s the passing on of email addresses to unknown quantities that puts me off.

Hi s.kenbo thanks for getting in touch.  You'd be very welcome to play.  I understand in this day and age trust is an issue - the collection of an email address simply serves as a unique identifier/username when entering the competition.  Subscriptions are optional to receive updates by email. Here is a guide of how to play: https://racingsilks.co.uk/how-to-play-dream-yard/ based on your feedback I have now added a button onto the competition interface page for easier access, thanks.

I've heard about the telegraph competition.  Our scoring system is also based around SP, however, from what I can gather we are the only game that scores every runner, trainer and jockey based on finishing position from first to last.  This creates lots of opportunity for players come up with different strategies to maximise points - it really is more than just picking the winner, especially as points double, triple or quadruple based on the contributing factors.

Hopefully Fairyhouse is back on tomorrow and you can give it a try.  If you have any further questions please don't hesitate to ask.

REPORTED

All racing forums become dominated by embittered losers who hate the game. I should know, I'm one!

All racing forums become dominated by embittered losers who hate the game. I should know, I'm one!

Maybe it's time to rediscover the love!

Comps on here already full with every Comp you can think of, Not enough hours in the day for anotherone but goodluck.

Thanks. I guess we'll have to focus on trying to be the best.  The one thing I've always wanted is for it to be free, fun and educational.  Following this great sport shouldn't come conditioned with feeling the need to bet or feel like following this sport comes with a stigma!

Sport and Horse Racing is a bit of a misnomer.

I’ve had a go.

Must say I don’t know 95% of those horses so I’ve just had a guess!

Haha @barstool you're probably right - I think that's why I have tried to base the gameplay around the fantasy football model.  It struck me when Rich Ricci said he uses horse racing as his way of competing now he can't play sports anymore. That is probably also why I've designed this game as a way of competing against someone other than the bookies because we all know that's not a level playing field!

Thanks @kenbo much appreciated.  Yeah to be fair, unless you follow Irish racing week in week out it's a bit of a minefield (all part of the fun though). As a rule of thumb if the meeting/festival has a grade 1/group 1 then I'll run a competition.  Keep the focus purely at the top end.  I didn't realise this, before I looked into it - but there are more Grade 1s in Ireland than the UK for jumps racing!

I don't have a problem with your product but you are in clear breach of BF's T&C's.
Post again and I will report you

Rather mean spirited, did your team get gubbed again?

How many times have we seen Greeks bearing gifts saddo?

How do you know he's Greek?

he smashes plates and eats kebabs

At last,some cultured comments

UptheIrons I hear your concerns and having consulted the T&Cs more closely is does appear I have been sailing a little bit close the wind.  However, please be reassured I am not going to jump out of a trojan horse and start deceiving people! The majority of my comments have been about my ideas and thoughts about betting and horse racing. My product is genuine and if anyone wants to know more they can message me privately - I respect the feedback and understand Betfair has to protect the forum space.

Reported as promised

No worries, no hard feelings.

I have to agree with irons as Racing silks has just the forum literally 2 days ago with the sole intention that he can spam us.
Bad form imo.

If you want to join a forum, great do it and partake in the general discussions.

Or if you want to advertise a product you have for sale / giving away, then take an advert out in the rp or post on 'x'  or wherever takes your fancy, but why join a forum purely to plug your product when it's against the rules ?

At least pretend to be a member for a month before coming on here and taking us all for mugs peddling your product, because you think it's free advertising for you. 

If you were a horse fan you'd have joined this forum years ago.
.

Don’t worry about the naysayers, R/S.

It’s a free to enter Fantasy Horse Racing competition. If you were asking for money I could understand their grievances.

We have been participating in such competitions on here for years. They are with big named companies. The only real gripe people come up with is their dislike for such firm, ie The Sun newspaper for example.

Yes, maybe change the " subscribe " button to " free join up ".
  Usually " subscribe " means parting with cash.!

I have to say this has been a very interesting experience so far.  I 100% respect all the feedback.  I am new to BF community and I have to hold my hands up and say I have been a bit naïve.  I apologise if I have upset anybody here.  I have had a Betfair account for 20 years and absolutely love horse racing (not sure why I never used the forum before). 
This is purely a hobbie for me to develop something that I think people will enjoy.  As I have already mentioned my goal has always been to make this a free activity for people to enjoy (in the same way people play fantasy football).  I've been involved in this game long enough to know that there are a lot of people trying to get your money.  As I have stated this is completely genuine.  I completely understand the concerns around the pop up subscription requests and I have removed them from the website (this is simply a mailing list).  I completely understand the criticism that has come my way.  I guess only time will tell!

I don't follow racing any more, but I have to say this sounds better than any of the initiatives the authorities have come up with to attract (and keep) new people to the game.  It's something they should be getting behind, IMHO.

Thanks Latalomne, much appreciated.

What is the point of generating an interest in horse racing if after a few modest 10 and 20 quid bets the punters get reduced to betting buttons and so clear off and do something else ?

How are the running costs of the website and competitions financed ?

Usual setup costs of a website / domain. I produce all the content and code myself which keeps costs down. Long term objective is to generate sponsorship that can be used to offer prizes. It's early days, and I'm keen to see if the interest is there amongst fellow fans to expand it. One thing is for sure though I want it to be free to play.