Tony Allevato | Horse Racing Free Tips

NYRA’s Expanded TV Coverage Seen as Reason for Healthy Handle Numbers

Because of the coronavirus and the resulting cancellations, comparing 2020 handle numbers to 2019 numbers is an inexact science. But something clearly has gone right for NYRA this year. Entering December, the daily average all-sources handle number for NYRA races was $11,829,355, a 19.6% increase from this time last year when an average of $9,894,226 had been pushed through the windows.

For the year overall, NYRA’s all-sources handle is down 14.2%, a modest decrease when considering that the amount of races offered has dropped by 25.1%.

That the increase in daily average handle has coincided with a significant increase in the number of hours devoted to NYRA race coverage on the Fox Sports networks is probably not a coincidence.

“It would not be an overstatement to say we have no idea where we would have been without television this year,” said NYRA’s chief revenue officer and the president of NYRA Bets Tony Allevato. “Television played an important part in NYRA’s strategy long before I got here. They had always looked at the future as being television and distributing the content to a mass audience. But nobody could have foreseen (the pandemic) coming. Thank goodness we had in place what we had in place. Otherwise, I’m not sure what would have happened.”

NYRA first teamed with Fox Sports in 2016 when the network televised 80 hours of racing from Saratoga. The total hours Fox Sports devoted to racing continue to climb, with the network broadcasting 385 hours in 2019. Another major expansion was ushered in for 2020. A total of 775 hours of coverage will be shown. For much of the year, virtually every race run at the New York tracks could be seen on a Fox Sports network.

The show, America’s Day at the Races, will air for the final time in 2020 Saturday when the Aqueduct card is topped by the GI Cigar Mile The broadcasts are expected to resume in the spring of 2021.

“We were really able to get our programming out and in front of, in our opinion, a new audience,” Allevato said.

The 2020 Fox-NYRA agreement called for NYRA to pull its races off of TVG, a calculated risk considering how many people watch that network and make their wagers through its ADW platform.

“We did worry about that,” Allevato said. “TVG had been a great partner with the New York Racing Association for almost 20 years and, obviously, they do a lot to drive handle. We didn’t take that decision lightly. We just looked at the difference in the type of coverage we could get for New York racing on Fox and compared it to what we were getting on TVG and we thought this gave us the best opportunity to really push our content.”

It was not just the increase in the total number of hours. Last year, the extent of NYRA racing coverage on Fox Sports 1 was all of one hour, with the remaining coverage airing on Fox Sports 2. This year, Fox Sports 1 picked up 206 hours of NYRA coverage. According to Allevato, Fox Sports 1 is available in 80 million homes, while Fox Sports 2 is available in just 55 million homes.

“The viewership difference between the two channels is pretty big,” Allevato said. “We will see three to five times the viewership when we are on Fox Sports 1 versus Fox Sports 2. Our hardcore audience is still watching when we are FS2. but we are seeing that we are getting that causal sports fan to watch when we are on Fox Sports 1. There were days during the summer that our show on Fox Sports 1 drew more viewers than a major league baseball game on the same day. Right now, our ratings on Fox Sports 1 are comparable, or higher than, college basketball and major league soccer. That’s a pretty big accomplishment for horse racing, in my opinion.”

In an attempt to track whether or not the shows were creating new racing fans, NYRA offered Fox viewers incentives to sign up with the NYRA Bets ADW, including a free $20 bet when someone signed up for a new account. Allevato said that the number of people who made additional deposits and became at least semi-regular bettors after opening up an account to take advantage of the free offer exceeded expectations.

It wasn’t the hardcore player or the existing fan that already was betting a lot that we were getting,” he said. “We were getting new people. Those types of customers are how we can grow this sport.”

To acquire 800 hours of air time on a national network and to put together the shows is not inexpensive, especially when you consider that NYRA produced the shows. Allevato said that when it comes to “America’s Day at the Races,” NYRA looks at more than the bottom line.

“One of the great things about NYRA is that NYRA is a not-for-profit,” he said. “So, when you look at what the team is trying to do here it’s not a short play, it’s a long game for us., It’s really about making sure that horse racing in New York succeeds and we also believe that for horse racing to be successful in New York we need horse racing to be strong across the country. Sometimes some of the decisions we make short term probably don’t pencil. But we are not about the short term, we are all about the long term. While we have not lost money on the shows–and we owe a huge debt of gratitude to our sponsors, America’s Best Racing, Claiborne and Runhappy–it is certainly not a lucrative short-term proposition for us. It is something we do because we feel it is right thing for NYRA and right thing for the sport.”

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Spanish Language Announcer Sues NYRA, Says He Was Paid Less than Whites Doing Same Job

Luis Grandison, a Black Latino who is a native of Panama and who served as the New York Racing Association’s Spanish language race caller from 2014 through March 2020, has sued NYRA claiming he was discriminated against because he was paid less than white Americans who call the races in English.

According to a suit filed Tuesday in Brooklyn Federal Court, Grandison was paid $60,000 a year. The suit claims that long-time NYRA announcer Tom Durkin earned $440,000 a year before retiring in 2014 and that his replacement, Larry Collmus, was paid in excess of $200,000 annually. Collmus left NYRA in January and was replaced by John Imbriale. The lawsuit claims that Imbriale also earns in excess of $200,000 annually.

“Although Grandison and his fellow full-time race callers performed the same primary duty (i.e., announcing), NYRA paid the white American race callers more than double Grandison’s salary despite Grandison having just as much experience as them, working more months per year than they did, and performing additional advertising duties not required of them,” the suit reads.

Grandison was furloughed in March when racing was shut down by the coronavirus. His job was then terminated in June. The suit alleges that NYRA’s treatment of Grandison amounted to “unlawful discrimination against him on the basis of his race, color, and national origin…”

“Defendant purposely discriminated against Plaintiff because of his Black and Latino/Hispanic racial background, thereby denying him equal terms and conditions of employment enjoyed by his white counterparts,” the suit also alleges.

NYRA Director of Communications Pat McKenna issued a statement defending the racing organization and its history of diversity.

“The New York Racing Association (NYRA) is proud to have the most diverse broadcast and TV team in the sport of horse racing today, and maintains a fair and equitable workplace,” the statement read. “NYRA–like so many businesses across the state and nation–has faced significant financial challenges as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and has been forced to make adjustments to its workforce in order to maintain operations and safeguard its future.”

Grandison began his career in Panama and called races at Hipódromo Presidente Remón in Panama City before moving to the U.S. in 2009. When he was brought on board by NYRA to call the races, then CEO and President Chris Kay said the hiring of Grandison was an “important initiative that will help enhance and personalize the guest experience for our Spanish speaking fan base.”

According to the suit, Grandison’s salary when hired was $32,000 and that he subsequently received raises until reaching the $60,000 mark. His job, the suit claims, involved more than just announcing and that he was required to promote NYRA racing on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, a role that was not required of Durkin, Collmus or Imbriale.

Grandison is seeking unspecified damages for discrimination.

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Runhappy Travers Returns to FOX Sports

For the second consecutive year, the $1-million GI Runhappy Travers S. at Saratoga will be televised live on the FOX Sports broadcast network as part of a 1 1/2-hour telecast from 5:00-6:30 p.m. ET Saturday.

Post time for the 151st running of the Runhappy Travers, featuring a showdown between GI Belmont S. winner Tiz the Law (Constitution) and the unbeaten Bob Baffert-trained Uncle Chuck (Uncle Mo), is scheduled for 6:15 p.m. ET.

An expanded Runhappy Travers Day edition of Saratoga Live, presented by America’s Best Racing, Runhappy and Claiborne Farm, will air nationally on FS1 beginning at 11:30 a.m. ET.

Coverage and analysis of the day’s races then shifts to FS2 beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET and continues throughout the afternoon on FS1/FS2.

The complete Runhappy Travers broadcast can also be viewed live on the TDN homepage at www.thetdn.com.

With this year’s Saratoga summer meet currently closed to spectators, Saturday’s Runhappy Travers Day coverage on Saratoga Live will leverage 32 cameras at various locations throughout the property to capture all the action. The broadcast will also include the introduction of the “WinStar Cam,” which will provide in-race aerial coverage throughout the day.

“This exceeds the amount of cameras that you would see during a major league baseball telecast, college basketball, college football,” Tony Allevato, President of NYRA Bets & Executive Producer for NYRA TV, said on a conference call Thursday afternoon. “We’re excited. We’ve got a good show ahead of us. It’s a unique year across the country and it’s a unique year for horse racing with the Triple Crown being run out of order and the Travers being run in the middle of the Triple Crown. It’s really an unprecedented time, but it’s also made for some great story lines, and hopefully we’ll be able to convey that on the show.”

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Handle Off to Strong Start at Spa with Help of Increased TV Exposure

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – At the very bottom on the left-hand side of the daily recap sheet you can find the answer to why the New York Racing Association opted to run at Saratoga this fan-free summer instead of staying downstate and operating at Belmont Park: All Sources Handle.

Though they were acutely aware that New York State’s COVID-19 protocols prevented spectators from attending professional sporting events, NYRA officials projected that handle on Saratoga racing would be stronger than on 40 days at Belmont. The early returns are showing they were correct. The opening day handle was up 21% from the rainy Saratoga opener in 2019. The first weekend, a total of four days, showed a 9.4% increase. The trend continued on Wednesday, the first day of the second week, with a jump of 38%.

Tony Allevato, the Chief Revenue Officer & President of NYRA Bets, said officials spent a lot of time considering whether it made sense to add the expense of opening Saratoga Race Course for the 152nd season of Thoroughbred racing in the city.

“From a management standpoint we got together with the horsemen and talked about it, looking at the Saratoga brand and what it means to racing. It’s the best in Thoroughbred racing,” he said. “When you think of Saratoga, you think of premier horse racing. I think it was important to maintain that season and have the racing come up here, knowing that it would be reflective in the numbers, in our opinion. The same race at Belmont would generate more handle and more money back to the industry if that race was run at Saratoga versus Belmont.”

Allevato said confidence in the power of Saratoga was borne out by the handle numbers during the first year of an exclusive television deal with Fox Sports and the MSG networks. Saratoga’s opening four days had a combined handle of $80.3 million, nearly double the final four days of the Belmont meet, which generated a combined handle of $41.4 million.

“I would not say we were surprised,” Allevato said. “We were reassured that we were doing the right thing, is the way to put it.”

However, noting that the stats have been solid, Allevato said it is too early to celebrate.

“We are living in a time where you can plan a lot, but things seem to change every two weeks,” he said. “You are always trying to be cautious and this move up here, just like the move that we made on the television side, there is always some risk involved with what we’re doing.”

Allevato, a California native, brought a deep resume of experience in racing and television sports with him to NYRA in 2016. Since his arrival, he has overseen the development and growth of the company’s advance deposit wagering platform, NYRA Bets, and its television programming. In 2016, the inaugural season of Saratoga Live had 80 hours of national broadcast time on the Fox Sports Network’s FS2 channel. Last year, the total grew to 190 hours. This year, the partnership expanded again, as NYRA left the long-established racing channel TVG for the commitment to Fox and MSG and 700 hours of live national TV exposure. The package includes America’s Day at the Races, as well as NYRA and Churchill Downs racing. Fox’s main sports channel, FS1 will carry 32 hours of Saratoga Live and the G1 Runhappy Travers will be shown live in a 90-minute program on Fox on Aug. 8.

Allevato worked for TVG for 14 years earlier in his career and said he had a strong relationship with the channel

“Any time that you are going to move away from a significant partner like that there is always going to be some kind of risk,” he said. “For us, the reason that we went exclusive this year with Fox, it was about being able to showcase New York Racing and our content and our horses and our horsemen on a national scale. It really came down to numbers in terms of programming. If you look at our shows we show two races an hour from New York. If Churchill is running we’ll show four races an hour, which is a race every 15 minutes.

“When we are on TVG we’re sharing the spotlight with sometimes five other race tracks. For us, it was important to try and get as much time around our signal. We are the New York Racing Association. We are very biased, but we think our racing is the best racing in the country. And we feel that it deserves 60 minutes of every hour in terms of coverage and that’s what we have been able to provide by being on Fox.

Moreover, Allevato said that the Fox deal has the potential to expand racing’s audience.

“By being on a mainstream sports network we are giving the sport an opportunity to reach out to new fans, something that horse racing has been preaching for decades and decades that needed to be done,” he said. “NYRA has now taken that step.

“We will be coming out of all different types of sporting events, whether it’s soccer games, baseball, NASCAR, you name it, we are capturing eyeballs that aren’t traditionally watching horse racing. With sports betting now growing across the country it’s a critical time for horse racing to get that crossover fan. We feel like the shows give us the best opportunity to expose those people to what we feel is the best racing in the country. With all the technology we have all the cameras, we are showing them a product that looks like a major league sporting event. We don’t see any scenario where that is bad for horse racing.”

Still, Allevato said there were questions about whether it was the right move to leave TVG, the go-to racing channel in the U.S.

“There was some criticism when we made the decision by a small number of people that there would be an inconvenience for viewers who would have to find the network,” he said. “Sometimes we are on multiple Fox networks. One day we might be on for two hours on FS2 and then the rest of the day on FS1. For me, as a person who watches sports television, if I want to watch an event I find it. I think the inconvenience, if it exists, is a 30-second inconvenience in terms of locating where it’s at.”

At the same time, every NYRA race is available every day in HD on NYRA’s YouTube channel, which is also shown on the TDN homepage.

“There are multiple ways for people to see the show,” Allevato said. “We are exposing horse racing to more eyeballs than ever. It’s pretty significant. While there were some complaints, we had a pretty long list of all the positives that came out of us being on Fox. One thing that was missing is that people who were criticizing us were working under the false assumption that Fox would still be giving us all these hours if we were non-exclusive. That was not the case.”

Allevato said that NYRA was building it television department before he arrived and that it has committed to investing in TV and its ADW platform.

“Technology is always going to come. If you try to avoid it, it’s going to run you over,” he said. “From a horse racing standpoint, we have embraced technology. It started 20 years ago with the advent of advanced deposit wagering. At the time, people looked at it as a way to keep people away from the races. Now, fast forward 20 years later, imagine where horse racing would be today during in this pandemic if there was no advanced deposit wagering. Literally, the sport would be dead. Horse racing has put themselves in a position where they can at least continue and operate during these difficult times.”

The increasing television exposure has helped the NYRA Bets business. Allevato said that new accounts are up 150% over last year. With that fact in mind, the NYRA programming approach is aimed at embracing new and seasoned fans.

“It’s a very intimidating sport for people who are just tuning in for the first time,” he said. “That’s what we really pride ourselves on trying to do that and make it as accessible for the average person. We do a lot of free-to-play things for people who watch the shows. We do a lot of offers for new customers that are low introductory offers to get them engaged. And we really try to make it as user-friendly as possible.

“It’s interesting with all the sign-ups and all the additional people that are betting the average amount being bet per customer is down, year over year, which is a really positive thing, if that makes sense. So we have more people betting but they don’t bet as much per person. That’s because we’ve got that more casual fan that is playing now.”

Once NYRA was given permission to re-open at Belmont in early June, Allevato and the other executives came to the conclusion that Saratoga, even without fans in the stands, was better for business than continuing on at Belmont Park.

“Looking at the numbers that we’ve seen so far, that would seem to solidify our beliefs,” he said. “There is also the TV element of this, as well. The entire industry has now become television and internet viewing. There is something about Saratoga from a historic standpoint–not taking anything away from Belmont Park–but there is that certain appeal that it has crosses over to that mainstream sports fan. That was the opinion we had going in. Nothing we have seen so far, granted we are one week into the meet, would suggest that we were incorrect in that thinking.”

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