The organization representing owners and trainers at FanDuel Sportsbook and Horse Racing (formerly known as Fairmount Park) is withholding consent for the TwinSpires betting platform to accept wagers from Illinois residents.
The board of the Illinois Horsemen's Benevolent & Protective Association, which represents horsemen at the southern Illinois track 15 miles from downtown St. Louis, cites the closure of suburban Chicago's industry icon Arlington Park by Churchill Downs Inc. (CDI), TwinSpires' parent corporation, as a prime motivation for withholding consent. With CDI not owning a functioning racetrack in Illinois in 2022, TwinSpires must under state law have a contract with another duly licensed track to conduct business in the state starting Jan. 1. The only remaining Prairie State horse tracks are FanDuel and Chicagoland's Hawthorne Race Course, with CDI seeking approval through the FanDuel track.
Illinois law also gives horsemen consent rights before an advance-deposit wagering (ADW) platform can enter into a relationship with an Illinois track to conduct business in the state.
Illinois HBPA president Jim Watkins said his organization's board believes the issue is of the magnitude that it should go before the Illinois Racing Board. The IRB has scheduled a hearing on Dec. 16 at 10 a.m. Central via WebEx. The racing regulators have the power to overrule the horsemen's veto if they believe the horsemen's action was unreasonable, he said.
“That's where we're at now,” Watkins said. “We just felt this was an issue the racing board should be able to weigh in on, whether TwinSpires continues to be allowed to operate in Illinois. That's a big reason we withheld our consent.”
Watkins said the horsemen are upset not just that CDI shut down Arlington Park but then would not sell to ownership wishing to maintain racing at the 94-year-old track. CDI is the majority owner of Rivers Casino Des Plaines, located 10 miles from Arlington Park. The company has an agreement to sell the Arlington Park property to pro football's Chicago Bears for a reported $197 million.
“CDI wants their cake and to eat it, too: 'We're not willing to be involved in the racing, but we want to still utilize our ADW powers in Illinois,'” Watkins said.
Beyond the situation with TwinSpires in Illinois, Watkins believes there are fundamental issues with the entire ADW model that the industry must address to maintain horse racing's viability.
“This is where the system is really flawed,” he said. “It's an agreement between three parties. In Illinois, the track and the ADW provider negotiate the contract, and the third — the horsemen — is just the consenter. There are so many questions left unanswered. Obviously with the increased numbers of people using ADWs, the horsemen and the tracks get so much less of that it could spell doom for us.
“The framers of these ADWs intended for it to basically be a third to the provider, a third to the track and a third to the horsemen. But they take out fees up front, and those fees are unspecified in purpose and amount. What is an ADW fee? What does that mean? The racetracks don't ask the ADW to pay their security payroll and the electric bill. And the horsemen don't ask the ADW company to pay the feed bill and hay bill and straw bill.”
Watkins said the Illinois HBPA also “wants to bring light to a flawed system” under which online betting platforms operate. Watkins said that the ADWs make the lion's share of the net proceeds at the expense of horsemen's purse accounts and brick-and-mortar tracks and simulcasting facilities, even as the online technology siphons off the majority of bettors.
“It's inherently flawed, just the way it is set up,” Watkins said. “I think it's going to be the death of horse racing if we continue to go at the rate we're going. This was so well-said by a Chicago horseman: 'We traded dollars for quarters when we went to simulcast wagering. Now, with the ADW wagering, we're trading dollars and quarters for nickels.' The recipe has to be changed if horse racing — at least for the mid-level and smaller tracks — is going to exist.”
Watkins points to a July 14 article by former New York Racing Association head Charles Hayward, now publisher of Thoroughbred Racing Commentary, that illustrates the inequities of the ADW splits.
“Because of the pandemic of early 2020, Advance Deposit Wagering (ADW), Computer Robotic Wagering (CRW) and other off-track outlets handled 97 percent of the total U.S. racing handle last year,” Hayward wrote. “The on-track handle was the remaining 3 percent, or $333 million.
“… Here is a model of how the racetrack and the purse account would split a million dollars bet through an ADW: The ADW operator receipts would be $70,000, or 40 percent greater than the $50,000 total proceeds to the racetrack and the purse account.”
The Illinois HBPA signed a one-year contract with TVG to operate in Illinois, Watkins said. FanDuel, part of the corporate enterprise that operates the TVG racing channel and betting platform, is the southern Illinois track's equity partner to operate the sports book. While the company is not a partner in the racetrack, it received branding and naming rights as part of a contract that includes the long-term sponsorship of the St. Louis Derby, worth $250,000 in 2021.
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