SIS Launching U.S. Subsidiary; Eyes Potential Growth Of Fixed Odds Wagering

United Kingdom-based Sports Information Services is launching a U.S. subsidiary, SIS Content Services Inc., showcasing the company's commitment to the U.S. and the opportunities available to digital and retail sportsbook operators and horse racing stakeholders.

SIS has been active in the market's pari-mutuel pool betting for a number of years, and offers a comprehensive range of products and services for sportsbook operators and racetracks.

For sportsbooks, SIS Content Services offers a full turnkey solution of real-time data and video feeds, trading services, and liability management on its portfolio of over 30,000 horse races, 38,000 greyhound races, and more than 100,000 competitive gaming (eSports) events. This international portfolio can add high-quality proven content to sportsbooks quickly and easily.

For racetracks, SIS offers fixed odds distribution of their racing content both domestically and globally to maximize revenue and attract new customers to the racing product. SIS is the most successful distributor of racing on a worldwide basis partnering with 118 racecourses in 16 countries.

SIS brings its expertise to the U.S. horse racing market as regulators, sportsbooks, racetracks, and horsemen's groups examine how fixed odds should be implemented as a sports betting product and as a complement to the current pari-mutuel system to grow the sport.

Richard Ames, CEO of SIS and president of SIS Content Services, said the launch played a significant part in the increased internationalization of the SIS business and comes at a time when the U.S. racing market faces unprecedented change and opportunity.

“SIS will provide customers with access to the world's best horse racing content, 30 years of distribution experience, and turnkey technology with the capacity to generate new revenues both on and off-track,” Ames said. “Our offering comes with all the products and services required to satisfy stakeholders across the industry and will add significant value to their own proposition.

“When it comes to fixed odds wagering, there are obviously a number of regulatory hurdles to cross in the coming months,” Ames continued, “but there is a genuine opportunity for it to benefit both horseracing stakeholders and sportsbooks. The launch of SIS Content Services follows on the heels of a significant investment in Australia's RACELAB GLOBAL, and is further evidence of the commitment that SIS is making to racing as both a sport and a wagering offering.”

SIS Content Services will be led by Michele Fischer and will make a number of additional appointments in the coming months. Fischer brings a wealth of U.S. horse racing knowledge to the role and is a familiar face to many in the industry as an international racing consultant and former Sportech executive.

“We have seen an explosion in sports betting in regulated states in the last few years,” said Fischer. “The time is now for U.S. racing and all its stakeholders to be an active participant and reap the benefits of that growth as well.

“As SIS has demonstrated for decades in the UK and Ireland, and currently in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, it is extremely well-positioned to help operators and racetracks make the most of their racing content,” said Fischer. “I am excited to be leading SIS Content Services at a time when the opportunity for U.S. racing both domestically and internationally is greater than it has ever been”

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TIF: Fixed Odds Betting For Racing Is A ‘Once-In-A-Generation Opportunity’

Launched in the summer of 2018, the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation (TIF) has sought improved outcomes for American Thoroughbred racing's “voluntary” participants – horse owners and horseplayers. As the sport's primary investment sources, horse owners and horseplayers drive much of racing's value chain – buying/breeding horses to race and betting on those races. Every stakeholder in the sport depends on these two groups participating financially, paying bills and placing bets.

TIF believes that by improving outcomes for those groups, the entire ecosystem of the sport will be improved. TIF published a series of foundational white papers in its first year, outlining a series of ideas that could yield such outcomes. Among them: reduced bet pricing, modernized rules, increased transparency, improved access (and reduced cost) to data used to inform bettors and an introduction of fixed odds betting for racing to complement existing pari-mutuel offerings.

While some industry organizations have spent years focusing on other important issues – notably safety and welfare – the ball has otherwise been dropped as it relates to the sustainability of the sport through wagering.

Many racetrack operators have pivoted into multi-platform technology businesses as wagering has shifted largely from in-person, brick-and-mortar betting to online, mobile and computer-robotic wagering. Relative to racing-related purse generation, this has not benefitted horse owners. In 2020, TIF estimated mainstream horseplayers, those betting less than $1 million annually, reduced their share of total racing wagering by approximately 63 percent from 2003.

The future might be different.

NEW JERSEY AND THE WORLD

In February 2020, Monmouth Park operators Darby Development signed a 10-year deal with Australian firm The BetMakers to manage the fixed odds betting business. In early August, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed a bill which enables such betting on the sport – for live and simulcast races – for the state's customers.

“We feel the support for fixed odds as a solution to facilitate growth in the horse racing industry in the U.S. gaining momentum throughout the industry,” said BetMakers CEO Todd Buckingham after the vote. “We are excited about what this opportunity means for the racing industry in New Jersey and more broadly in the U.S.”

One notable concern often raised about introducing fixed odds to racing is the loss of business from higher revenue-sharing bets in pari-mutuel pools, typically win betting, which shift to the new option where odds are locked-in, but revenue back to purses is often lower.

TIF supported the concept, publishing a white paper on the topic in February 2019, and is excited by the possibilities it brings for the industry.

“The American pari-mutuel monopoly has not been kind to the sport or horsemen in the internet era,” said TIF Executive Director Patrick Cummings.

“Pari-mutuel wagering has been allowed to stagnate – there has been little innovation in the space. Adjusted for inflation since 2000, overall pari-mutuel wagering on racing is down 50% in the U.S., and most of that occurred while racing had a veritable monopoly in online betting. Our customer base has changed, the market has changed, but racing's betting business stagnated. Fixed odds competition should be good for racing, introduce racing to legal sports betting customers across America and offer an additional option for existing customers.”

But BetMakers is not banking on fixed odds for racing in America alone.

The Australian company recently completed the acquisition of the racing, tote and digital assets from Sportech, one of three companies which had provided pari-mutuel betting services to North American racing.

In an interview with SBC Americas, BetMakers chief operating officer Jake Henson outlined the long-term vision for the firm.

“Our mission is to create the world's largest global racing network that rewards all industry stakeholders and provides a sustainable ongoing funding model for the sport,” said Henson.

The first fixed-odds service provider in U.S. racing is also a big pari-mutuel betting player too. The complement of fixed odds betting to existing pari-mutuel offerings is attractive to one of America's biggest operators.

OPTIMISM FROM NYRA, HORSEMEN

David O'Rourke, the New York Racing Association's chief executive officer, glowed about the possibilities of fixed odds bets for racing in his address at the Jockey Club's Round Table in mid-August.

“A marketplace where most sports books offer racing should be our goal. Fixed odds on simpler wagers alongside pari-mutuel exotics is a potential winning combination, offering the new player a familiar entry point while maintaining deep exotic pools for our more experienced players.

“There are a lot of risks, challenges, hesitations, and hurdles to realize a market where fixed odds and ADW offerings come together. But we here at NYRA believe the rollout of sports betting is a once-in-a-generation opportunity.”

Joe Applebaum, president of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association, embraced fixed odds as “inevitable” a day after O'Rourke at the Racing & Gaming Conference in Saratoga Springs in mid-August.

“Typically, horsemen sit on a panel like this and throw up all sorts of reasons why we shouldn't change and we should stick with pari-mutuel,” Appelbaum said. “But I would say that it's inevitable, maybe in six months or maybe in six years, there will be a mix of bookmaking and pari-mutuel wagering in this country, and in just about any jurisdiction. We should keep our eyes open, and we shouldn't be scared.”

FIXED ODDS ONLY NEW FOR U.S. CUSTOMERS

Cummings notes that American track operators, and a subsidiary of 1/ST (formerly The Stronach Group), have enjoyed revenue from fixed odds betting for years through contracts between tracks, the subsidiary (XB Net) and foreign bookmakers.

“Several European bookmakers have shared with TIF, separately, that total betting on U.S. racing at fixed odds from European customers exceeds 1 billion British pounds annually, the equivalent of nearly 13% of total U.S. pari-mutuel handle. It is beyond time for the American market to expand and offer such bets to American customers on American races.”

Upon the publishing of fixed odds regulations by New Jersey's Division of Gaming Enforcement, followed by the completion of agreements between New Jersey bookmakers, American tracks and their representative horsemen's groups, fixed odds bets can be offered by registered New Jersey betting operators to their customers. Pari-mutuel betting remains unchanged.

The New Jersey Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association (NJTHA) has been at the forefront of sports betting legalization in America. Their suit against the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and professional sports leagues, later combined with one from then New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (and assumed by Governor Murphy) paved the way for legal sports betting to be adopted by states.

Through the end of July 2021, more than $17.3 billion has been bet, with over $1.2 billion in revenue to the state, through legal New Jersey bookmakers since June 2018.

When fixed odds bets for racing are first offered for New Jersey customers, the numbers will undoubtedly be small to start. More states are believed to be considering expanding offerings to include racing, but there is no doubt New Jersey is going first…again.

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Fasig-Tipton Announces Partnership With BetMakers

BetMakers Technology Group has been named the official fixed-odds partner of the 100th Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale, the auction house's upcoming flagship yearling sale in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

Australia based BetMakers Technology Group provides critical solutions in technology, data and development to the global racing and wagering industry, spanning both fixed odds and pari-mutuel markets.

Partnering with racing operators all over the world, BetMakers delivers technology-led, data-informed solutions that improve the customer experience, bolster integrity, and enable growth. Their content distribution services offer compelling opportunities for racing operators to expand and better monetize distribution of their racing content and their integrity platforms help racing bodies nurture growth and sustainability of racing around the globe.

With the 2021 acquisition of Sportech Racing, a leading global supplier of pari-mutuel technology solutions, BetMakers has created the world's leading technology provider for racing services with a presence in over 40 countries and 35 U.S. States.

BetMakers is a global leader in the racing and wagering industry, with a strong, growing presence in the United States,” said Fasig-Tipton President and Chief Executive Officer Boyd Browning. “Fasig-Tipton is pleased to partner with such an innovative, progressive company.”

“We are excited to be in the marketplace at this distinctly unique moment,” said Dallas Baker, Head of International Operations for BetMakers. “We are proud to contribute to the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale and congratulate the Fasig-Tipton team on the celebration of its centennial.

“Our industry has a unique and timely opportunity — tap into the enthusiasm surrounding sports betting to introduce new and complimentary betting options for racing that operators can promote, alongside pari-mutuel betting, to produce growth and sustainability. We know from other markets that this is a viable growth strategy. According to the Racing NSW 2020 Annual Report, Australia's introduction of fixed odds betting on racing, as a compliment to pari-mutuel betting, doubled handle over 10 years with a correlated increase in purse returns as well.

“We encourage US racing and betting principals to embrace the opportunity for growth that can be realized through the expansion of products for betting on Thoroughbred racing.”

BetMakers will have representatives on-site at the 100th Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale, which takes place this coming Monday and Tuesday, August 9 and 10.  They may also be reached directly by email at Dallas.Baker@BetMakers.com. For further information about BetMakers, please visit betmakers.com.

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New Jersey Governor Signs Fixed Odds Wagering Bill, Awaiting Regulatory Approval

Fixed odds wagering will be available at Monmouth Park in the coming weeks after New Jersey Gov. Philip Murphy on Thursday signed legislation approving the new bet, with implementation awaiting regulatory approval from the New Jersey Racing Commission and the Division of Gaming Enforcement.

Monmouth Park, working in conjunction with BetMakers Technology Group, will be the first racetrack in the country to offer fixed odds wagering, a popular bet in Europe and Australia.

“We appreciate the continued support from Gov. Murphy and the state legislature, as well as Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin and Senate President Steve Sweeney, in advancing fixed odds wagering,” said Dennis Drazin, chairman and CEO of Darby Development LLC, the operator of Monmouth Park. “It provides our patrons with another wagering option that we firmly believe will be a popular one.”

The bill was co-sponsored by state Assemblymen Ronald S. Dancer and Ralph R. Caputo and state Senators Vin Gopal and Paul A. Sarlo.

Fixed odds wagering allows bettors to retain the odds at the time of their bet, as opposed to pari-mutuel wagering, where odds are not finalized until betting is completed.

When it is available at Monmouth Park, fixed odds will be offered on win, place and show betting at the outset, with a minimum wager of $1. There will be designated fixed odds windows throughout the grandstand and clubhouse, with televisions displaying the current fixed odds.

Monmouth Park will also show the fixed odds for each race during the track's in-house televised feed of races.

Fixed odds wagering will begin with Monmouth Park races, with the expectation that it will expand to other tracks that enter into an agreement to permit fixed odds wagering on their races.

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