Letter to the Editor: CAW ‘Activity Stinks to High Heaven’

by Walter Toner

Rainy afternoon on Cape Cod and I had a few minutes to kill, so flipped the channel to TVG for a quick flutter. I selected the filly Just Like Magic, approaching the gate at 7-5 as the recipient of a $10 win wager in the 3rd race Oaklawn (3/28).

She charged up the rail and won. Final odds were 3-5. WTF. Sorry for the crudeness.

Racing will never engage the next generation of punters with 15-27% takeout and NO fixed odds, when they can bet on sports with a 4% vig and wagers that are fixed.

In the UK, an extremely sophisticated betting market, exchange wagering in its 20-year history now handles 85% of wagers, plus or minus.

Further exacerbating the industry's vulnerability is the contents of this article. My takeaway from this article is that Stronach and his friends:

  • Own racetracks
  • Own offshore betting hubs for friends
  • From these hubs, friends receive substantial discounts to wager into onshore pools
  • And we can assume the friends are getting late, direct access to track pools… and perhaps entering the pool after the start

Now the late betting is speculation on my part. It feels like it happens. And from the first four bullets, it seems suspiciously like that might be happening.

This insider activity stinks to high heaven, not just regular heaven.

This beautiful sport is bucking these horrific headwinds of scandal and a less-than-competitive product. Yet racing will always have tremendous potential.

But what is the point of one laboring all night on PPs to arrive at a horse that one feels should be 6-5 or 7-5, only to see that selection drop to 3-5 at the quarter pole?

My introduction to racing was with Win Elliot, the Schaefer Circle of Sports, and Fred Capossella. Old timers can place an era on those names. My first Racing Form cost me 50 cents; what are they now, $10? I can make an informed wager on the Red Sox without that surcharge.

Sadly I am not sure that I'm going to ever see the industry make any real progress making horse racing as competitive and accessible as other wagering products.

Thanks for reading.

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Fixed-Odds Horse Racing Wagering Debuts in Colorado

Fixed-odds horse racing wagering has been approved in Colorado. The deal was forged between SIS Content Services, part of the SIS (Sports Information Services) Group, and long-time operator partner bet365 to deliver its global horse racing content to bettors in Colorado.

The approval of horse racing fixed-odds wagering on Colorado sportsbooks is intended to attract a wider range of casual bettors, who will be offered the same type of betting as all other sports.

SIS offers a horse racing vast portfolio of international and domestic events, including the upcoming Saudi Cup Day Feb. 24 and Dubai World Cup meeting Mar. 30. Additionally, year-round racing is available from 14 countries, including Ireland, Australia, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, and the United States.

“This is a great first step in expanding the horse racing audience and I commend the Colorado horse racing stakeholders, Colorado Division of Gaming and bet365 for their vision and support,” said Michele Fischer, Vice President, SIS Content Services. “Horse racing provides sportsbooks with exciting year-round 24/7 content throughout the world. It will take time in the US, but I expect that more sports wagering operators and states will include horse racing on their sports catalogs.”

The SIS platform also includes live-streamed video with betting triggers, race day data, and an extensive range of markets and odds prices.

Shannon Ruston, Executive Director of Operations & Racing at Bally's Arapahoe Park, said: “We are thrilled to be able to put horse racing on Colorado sportsbooks for fixed-odds wagering. Working with SIS, we crafted a commercial framework that benefits local racing, while giving sportsbooks access to thousands of races. Our belief is that this development will secure a better future not only for Arapahoe Park, but also for the racing ecosystem as a whole in Colorado.”

For more information, click here.

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Monmouth And BetMakers Continue Partnership; Fixed Odds Sought According To Survey

Monmouth Park and BetMakers Technology Group will partner for the fourth straight year as sponsors for the $1 million “BetMakers Bonanza” bonus for the connections of any horse that sweeps a series of three designated races, the organizations said in a release Friday.

To earn the seven-figure bonus, a horse has to the win the GI TVG.com Haskell S. at Monmouth Park on July 22, the GI Travers S. at Saratoga on Aug. 26 and the GI Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita on Nov. 4.

“As part of our ongoing partnership with BetMakers we're pleased to be able to offer the BetMakers Bonanza bonus for a fourth straight year,” said Dennis Drazin, the chairman and CEO of Darby Development, LLC, the operators of Monmouth Park. “The commitment that BetMakers has made to racing in New Jersey has had a significant impact.”

Australia-based BetMakers also released findings from a recent survey that said more than four out of five horseplayers in the U.S. want access to fixed odds betting options, which outside of New Jersey, has been legalized in Colorado, but is not live yet. Other states are working on legislation to do the same.

“BetMakers understands the drivers of a thriving horse wagering ecosystem, including giving horseplayers more options for betting,” said Jake Henson, CEO of BetMakers Technology Group. “That 83% of surveyed horseplayers would like fixed odds to be added to pari-mutuel betting on racing is a resounding figure that speaks to the opportunity racing has in the United States to tailor a product that speaks to a new generation of horse player.”

The survey drew responses from 1,500 participants, half of whom were self-described sports bettors and the other half self-described horseplayers.

 

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Monmouth Meet Will Offer Expanded Opportunities for Fixed Odds Players

Fixed odds wagering at Monmouth Park last year didn't exactly break sharply from the gate. In its first run, it was available only on Monmouth races and, initially, only to on-track customers. A website that took fixed odds bets did get up and going during the meet, but regulations that would allow for bettors living outside of New Jersey to bet on fixed odds never did materialize. Handle figures were never made public, but it appeared that fixed odds accounted for only a small percentage of Monmouth's total handle.

Yet, officials with the Australian firm BetMakers Technology Group Ltd., which facilitates fixed odds bets for Monmouth, expressed optimism about the future of the new form of betting at Tuesday's kickoff luncheon for the 2023 Monmouth meet, which begins Saturday. At the very least, some progress has been made, particularly when it comes to the content available to bettors. In addition to the Monmouth races, fixed odds bets on Delaware Park, Hawthorne, Emerald Downs, Century Downs, Canterbury Park and FanDuel Racing will be available this year and an agreement that would make bets on Parx available could be wrapped up shortly.

In addition, there's now an app that players can use to play fixed odds and the bets will be available at some self-service betting machines. Last year, bets had to be made with a teller and only a handful of windows were open for fixed odds.

Jake Henson, the chief executive officer at Betmakers Technology Group Ltd., sees these developments as an important step in the right direction and hasn't given up on the goal of making fixed odds betting a major part of how U.S. horse players wager.

“Last year was a big learning event for everyone, our staff on track, our technology team and for everybody involved in regulatory and with compliance,” he said. “We got together at the end of the season to look at what we needed to get better at and what we needed to improve upon.  We're confident we're making progress.”

But before fixed odds betting can get to the next level, two things have to happen. BetMakers must be able to offer wagers on the top tracks in the sport, like Saratoga, Santa Anita, Keeneland, Churchill and Gulfstream, and it has to be available to a far bigger audience than just New Jersey residents. Henson believes that day will come.

“Last year helped a lot with that process because now you have something tangible that you can show regulators and horsemen,” he said when asked about expanding to other states. “How it works, how the economics work. Ultimately, the whole thing is about getting return back to the industry and now that we have a sample set we are more confident going forward. We're in discussions with a number of states, some discussions more advanced than others.”

And when it comes to adding the top tier tracks to the betting menu?

“The more you can show them so far as tangible evidence goes, how it works, how the economics work, that makes it easier to get them to come to table,” Henson said. “For now, we will support the tracks we're involved with and put our attention and focus on them. We are in discussions with some of the major tracks and are keeping them updated on the economics.”

A more long-range goal is to get racing product onto sports betting websites. The belief is that that will be easier to do if fixed odds wagers are offered to traditional sports bettors, who are mostly unfamiliar with pari-mutuel wagering.

“We did some surveys last season and found that two out of three sports bettors would bet on racing if fixed odds was a product option for them,” Henson said. “And there are a lot of sports bettors in this country that are not betting on racing but could be. It's a big opportunity to capture that segment of the market and we will continue to invest and chip away to make that happen.”

Dennis Drazin, the head of the management team at Monmouth, also said he remains optimistic about fixed odds and believes it will eventually become a significant part of the sport.

“When we first talked with the people from BetMakers, they said that in Australia, where they have fixed odds, they have 30 million people,” Drazin said. “Those 30 million people bet the equivalent of $20 billion U.S. and fixed odds has a lot to do with that. We have 350 million people here and we only bet $12 billion. We think one of the things that can help turn things around and grow revenue for the sport is fixed odds wagering. BetMakers has been a great partner. They came here and got this thing rolling for us. Last year was the infancy of what we're going to do. But what's going to happen from here is we are going to grow the handle throughout the United States as this spreads around the country. I think it can get to $400-$500 million a year in handle. As each state comes on, the results will be proven. I think fixed odds wagering will spread to other states once we get rolling.”

This will be the 78th season of racing at Monmouth Park and the meet will run for 51 days, nine fewer than last year. Closing day is September 10, which will be followed by a 10-day meet at the Meadowlands, which will be all turf racing.

Paco Lopez will be back in search of his tenth riding title. Joe Bravo is the track's all-time leader with 13 titles, but he now rides in California. There are 48 stakes on the schedule, highlighted by the GI Haskell S. The $1 million race will be run on July 22 on a card that will include four other graded stakes. Four stakes top the June 17 card, which has been dubbed Haskell Preview Day.

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