Tag: Horseplayers

Emily Gullikson, a founding partner in the equine analytics company OptixEQ, will join the team of on-air analysts at Hawthorne Race Course for the Fall Thoroughbred meet beginning Sept. 23 and running through Dec. 31, racing Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. A highly respected handicapper and racing analyst, Emily is also an experienced contest player who has qualified multiple times for the National Horseplayers Championship (NHC) and will use this expertise to provide valuable insights to players throughout the Club Hawthorne network of off-track betting bars and within Hawthorne's race day simulcast.

“Emily has a unique perspective on handicapping that goes beyond identifying the opinions about why selections will finish in the money. She wants to help players build better tickets to win more money no matter how the race sets up. By expanding our team of on-air analysts we can have real integration of wagering expertise at our OTBs and at the track,” said John Walsh, assistant general manager of Hawthorne Race Course.

Since the closure of Arlington Park and its off-track betting facilities, Hawthorne has opened and remodeled eight new betting bars, bringing its total number of venues to 16 throughout Chicagoland, Rockford (northwest Illinois) and Peoria (central Illinois). As the track itself prepares for a $400 million redevelopment to add casino gaming, Club Hawthorne betting bars have become high-impact destinations for horse players and sports bettors. Three of Hawthorne's facilities include cash sports betting through its partnership with PointsBet, with a fourth location set to open in October pending final regulatory approval.

“I think Hawthorne has a really bold outlook on the future of horse racing overall and is approaching long-term player development with a lot of innovation,” said Gullikson. “From contests to content marketing, I'm excited to join a team that is so clearly dedicated to re-establishing Illinois racing and showcasing the excitement of handicapping for new kinds of bettors in such a big market.”

HAWTHORNE INVITATIONAL

Gullikson will join Hawthorne's lead analyst and Director of Racing, Jim Miller, and guest host Nancy Holthus from Oaklawn Park, for a live stream of the Hawthorne Invitational presented by the Daily Racing Form on Saturday, October 1st. 50 of the top players in the country, including NHC and BCBC winners, Tour Champions, and Hall of Famers, will share their selections and betting strategies in real-time for anyone watching on Hawthorne's YouTube channel. The contest will focus on 6 mandatory races, culminating with the $100,000 Hawthorne Derby. Top prizes include entries to the NHC, BCBC, Pegasus Betting Challenge, $10,000 cash, and a $1,000,000 bonus for winning the 2023 NHC.

OPTIXEQ

Throughout its Fall meet, Hawthorne and Gullikson will feature OptixEQ plots for every Hawthorne race and Club Hawthorne players will have special access to OptixEQ subscriptions of proprietary handicapping data. “If you're a player who loves data and sees each race as a puzzle to solve, the trip notes and analysis behind the OptixEQ race graphs are really compelling. I've been betting races for 40 years and this is a whole new way of looking at pace dynamics that reveals betting opportunities that I might not have considered otherwise. I'm really excited for more of our players to see this,” said Walsh.

The post New Racing Analyst: OptixEQ’s Emily Gullikson Joins Hawthorne For Fall Meet appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Pushing today's pari-mutuel wagering experience to sports bettors might turn them off to racing forever.

Significant work has been dedicated to getting North American horse racing content on the platforms of existing and emerging sports betting providers. Racing would bring tens of thousands of wagering events to these platforms. In the absence of fully-evolved legal markets for fixed-odds on racing, the general thought has been that racing must be offered to sports bettors first via pari-mutuel betting using a shared wallet.

This position was espoused by New York Racing Association (NYRA) CEO David O'Rourke in August during the Racing & Gaming Conference at Saratoga and more recently upon the announcement of a content partnership between FanDuel and Churchill Downs.

On the surface, it makes sense.

Distribution of racing to potential mainstream players could skyrocket.

Unfortunately, the present-day pari-mutuel product lacks the qualities that sports bettors have come to expect.

Take it from Jason Scott, now the vice president of trading in America for BetMGM, formerly CEO of Ladbrokes Australia and a massive racing fan. Scott's remarks were included in an interview published last week from Gaming Today.

“We found everywhere else in the world, customers want to understand and know what price they're going to get. In most of the [race] meetings here [in America], the pools are really small. The professional syndicates bet late, and the price that you're getting paid is nothing like (the odds at the time of the wager) because so much money's going in in the last minute.”

Fixed odds betting on racing might not be a magic elixir for the sport, but it would provide a product that otherwise does not exist for mainstream customers and can complement existing pari-mutuel offerings, provided tote betting is modernized.

For the best part of the last century, Americans have been stuck with a pari-mutuel system, one that has morphed over the last two decades into a playground for algorithmic-driven professional betting syndicates. Those wishing to get pari-mutuel racing to a single-wallet platform that reaches sports bettors wrongly assume those customers won't care that a horse they bet at 10-1 when loading goes to 5-1 ten seconds after the start of the race, once all betting is reflected.

That is the everyday reality in North American racing's pari-mutuel landscape.

The professional, robotic wagering groups set the final price and everyone else that bets before them (pretty much all customers) are stuck with it.

As Jason Scott stated plainly, sports bettors know what price they are going to get when they bet. That experience is practically non-existent in U.S. racing today.

Racing needs to acquire and retain new customers. While we might acquire some new customers by vastly increasing distribution through shared-wallet platforms in the ever-growing sports betting world, retaining those customers is a pipe dream if the product they are offered is purely pari-mutuel.

While fixed odds and pari-mutuel betting can easily co-exist, the tote is in massive need of reform to increase its competitiveness. From Delaware Park to Del Mar, big betting syndicates run amok on today's race betting scene. Betting from mainstream (or mass market) horseplayers might be down by as much as 70%, adjusted for inflation, over the last two decades.

The mainstream segment's decline is far steeper than overall handle declines because the computerized, robotic wagering groups filled the gap.

Mass-market sports bettors will not cozy-up to pari-mutuel betting after a few bad experiences with dramatic odds fluctuations. Requiring sportsbooks to offer pari-mutuel first via a shared wallet is akin to serving stale bread.

Racing does not have the luxury to deliver new customers a poor wagering experience. Forcing onto them the modern-day pari-mutuel product will do just that.

Patrick Cummings is the Executive Director of the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation

The post Thoroughbred Idea Foundation: Sports Bettors Won’t Stay If Racing Is Purely Pari-Mutuel appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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The 20-cent Rainbow 6 gross jackpot pool will be guaranteed at $450,000 Friday at Gulfstream Park.

First-race post time is set for 12:25 p.m. (ET).

The popular multi-race wager has gone unsolved for the 16 racing days following an Aug. 13 mandatory payout.

The Rainbow 6 jackpot is paid out when there is a single unique ticket sold with all six winners. On days when there is no unique ticket, 70% of that day's pool goes back to those bettors holding tickets with the most winners, while 30% is carried over to the jackpot pool.

The post Gulfstream Park: Rainbow 6 Jackpot Pool Guaranteed At $450,000 Friday appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Saturday's 11-race card from Churchill Downs will feature an all-stakes 50-cent Late Pick 5 that will begin in Race 7 at 3:50 p.m.

The 15% takeout bet will cover the $300,000 Open Mind (Race 7), $400,000 Locust Grove (G3) (Race 8), $300,000 Iroquois (G3) (Race 9), $275,000 Louisville Thoroughbred Society (Race 10) and $300,000 Pocahontas (G3) (Race 11).

In the Open Mind, the compact field of five fillies and mares features the eighth matchup between multiple graded stakes winning rivals Bell's the One (6-5) and Sconsin (8-5). Joyful Cadence, who finished second to Bell's the One in the $200,000 Lady Tak last month was made the 7-2 third choice on the morning line odds. The field is rounded out by five-time winning mare Club Car and Chilean-bred stakes winner Cheetara.

The 38th running of the 1 1/16-mile Locust Grove is headlined by trainer Kenny McPeek's graded stakes-winning stablemates Crazy Beautiful (9-5) and Envoutante (5-2). Recent Saratoga allowance winner Played Hard was tabbed at 2-1 on the morning line odds.

Nine 2-year-olds will contest the Iroquois where notable Saratoga maiden special weight winner Echo Again was made the 2-1 favorite over Grade II winner Damon's Mound (5-2).

The second running of the Louisville Thoroughbred Society features a matchup of six-time winner Isolate (7-5) and seven-time winner Necker Island (5-2). The six-furlong dash also includes stakes winner Top Gunner (5-1) and Miles Ahead (6-1).

The sequence will close with the Pocahontas where Ellis Park Debutante heroine Justa Warrior was made the slight 4-1 favorite over debut winner Grand Love (9-2).

For expert selections, special offers and more information about Saturday's all-stakes Pick 5 sequence, visit www.churchilldowns.com/handicapping.

Fans can bet the all-stakes Late Pick 5 sequence on www.TwinSpires.com, the official wagering provider of Churchill Downs Inc. and the Kentucky Derby.

The post All-Stakes Pick 5 With 15 Percent Takeout On Saturday’s Card At Churchill Downs appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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