The Revival of Horse Racing Betting Post-Legalization
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00All right, so, you know, I always like talking horse racing as far as a sports betting perspective,
00:07because once they legalized sports betting several years ago, there were many that predicted
00:12that the horse racing industry would take a huge hit.
00:14I think we saw that maybe initially, but it has definitely built itself back up.
00:18And a couple of companies in particular, we'll touch on them, Fox and even DraftKings are
00:23discussing just how popular horse racing continues to be, and the handle seems to be growing.
00:30Yeah, and I think on the surface, that's exactly right.
00:34We've seen a lot of sports books get involved in the horse betting space.
00:39We've seen Fox Sports get involved on the broadcast side, as well as the wagering side.
00:46A couple of years ago, they took out a 25% equity stake in NiraBets, the ADW, Advanced
00:56Deposit Wagering Platform for the New York Racing Association.
01:00And I was interested how the broadcast has translated into betting handles.
01:07So I spoke to a couple of executives at Nira and at Fox Sports over the last couple of
01:12weeks, and they kind of explained what the strategy there is on the broadcast side as
01:19they work to grow that handle.
01:22And obviously, Craig, when you have broadcasting hours that increase, you're exposing it to
01:28more eyeballs, more people are going to be betting on it.
01:33And I think that's simple and easy to understand and an obvious sort of trajectory that they've
01:42rolled out over the last couple of years.
01:45When they have broadcast, racing broadcasts on FS2, it's about 50,000 people that are
01:51typically watching those.
01:53When that broadcast moves to FS1, it's about 100,000.
01:57And this summer, as they've had in the last couple of summers, the national broadcasts
02:01on Fox for the big stakes races on Saturday at Saratoga, those typically bring in about
02:07a half million viewers.
02:09Now, they've told me that that handle has grown.
02:14Last year, they did about $250 million of handle on the NiraBets app.
02:20And that's all throughout the year and not just on Nira races.
02:24It's whatever tracks that Nira offers, which is upwards of 300 when you include tracks
02:33in the U.S. and abroad.
02:34This year, they told me they're expecting to do $350 million in handle on the NiraBets
02:39app.
02:40And part of that strategy is appealing to, at least trying to appeal to a younger demographic.
02:47They have young talent talking about the races, talking about what it's like being at the
02:53track, some insider information, if you will, on what's going on with each of the races
02:59that they're covering.
03:00Though, they did tell me that they want to keep it a sports event, a sporting event first
03:07rather than a gambling event, which is interesting because a lot of the complaints that I hear
03:12from horse players is that there isn't enough attention and time being devoted to that
03:19educational aspect on how to properly bet horses, how to read a racing form, and how
03:25to make smart wagers to ultimately make you more successful long term.
03:30So Fox did tell me that they do hear those complaints, though they do want to keep it
03:34a sporting event first, a wagering event second.
03:39Record handle last weekend at Saratoga for the Travers, which we'll touch on again here
03:44in a minute with this DraftKings story, but record handle $63 million over Travers Saturday
03:51here up at Saratoga last weekend.
03:54So obviously the broadcasts are working in helping to increase that handle.
03:59They're expecting to go over $350 million on the NiraBets app this year, Craig.
04:09Thanks for watching.
04:10Have a great week.
04:11Bye.
04:12Bye.
04:13Bye.
04:14Bye.
04:15Bye.
04:16Bye.
04:17Bye.
04:18Bye.
04:19Bye.
04:20Bye.
04:21Bye.
04:22Bye.
04:23Bye.
04:24Bye.
04:25Bye.
04:26Bye.
04:27Bye.
04:28Bye.
04:29Bye.
04:30Bye.
04:31Bye.
04:32Bye.
04:33Bye.
04:34Bye.
04:35Bye.
04:36Bye.
04:37Bye.