After arriving in Japan, you will soon recognize that you can enjoy race betting for the hours you usually stay awake. You can start betting in the morning and keep doing it until around midnight, not only for some days but also 365 days of the year!
Races used to be held between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. in all types of races. The race hours have been extended both early and late since the late 1980s, which ended with the first race of the day beginning at past 8 a.m. and the last race finishing just before 12 a.m. in the 2020s.
When all the races were packed from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., the rivalry among racing organizers was so intense that they had difficulties boosting their sales and acquiring regular customers.
Then, some organizers strategically shifted their racing hours to late slots with the aim of securing racing hours that were less competitive against other organizers. Tokyo City Keiba started its evening races for the first time in 1986, and several racing organizers followed suit. Other organizers moved race hours to much less competitive time zones, such as hours before the opening time of regular offices and hours just before people go to bed.
Sales of the races in the evening were compatible with online betting because evening races allowed regular office workers to bet online after work on weekdays. With more people on the internet using smartphones, races for evening hours gained more fans, and their sales have dramatically increased.
In the meantime, some of the race courses holding evening races made their stands smaller during refurbishment, such as Gamagori boat racing in Aich prefecture and Omura boat racing in Nagasaki prefecture. Most sales for their evening races stemmed from online betting rather than from fans who see races at racecourses in person. So, the race organizers expected that they would not need stands accommodating a large number of fans anymore. Smaller stands need less cost for both facility maintenance and security staff.