This type of betting are not new to France and Japan.
In France, all horses belong to the same stable ( ie not sure if it also applies to horses belong to the same owner) will get the same color and you walk up to the PM and call a color-in French , of course.
In Japan, they like grouping a fancied one with a no-hoper and share the same color ( ie not sure if they also share color with the same ownership; I 'll check with an oversea forum later). I don't speak Japanese and I have never been there. Can someone please confirm?
Not long ago, Australia had a pool that you either pick even/odd/mix on the Q result. They called it "twos up". Let me tell you about the pool size-------sometimes, the total was less than $10 for the whole NSW state. HKJC should not bother with these new bets. They should run the racings cleaner and the pool size will increase automatically.