Over the past six months, the landscape of the New York Racing Association has changed dramatically, both literally and figuratively.
Next to the 18,000-seat UBS Arena opening on the campus of Belmont Park Last fall and joined the complex, in January Empire State residents were treated to a new and very popular betting option when sports betting was finally legalized.
To understand how enticing the National Football League or National Basketball Association betting could be for New Yorkers, in that first month people bet a fair amount of money. amazing. Even with a start date of 8 January, in January alone a total of 1.62 billion dollars was staked.
Add in $1.3 billion in bets on sports in neighboring New Jersey in the same month and a combined $2.9 billion total for just those two states in a single month easily eclipses the entire table. NYRA all-source bet controls for 2021, tested at $2.3 billion.
In February, even though the figures dropped and didn’t include February 28, the two states still combined for a $2.47 billion bet.
With such numbers springing up around him and the racing industry, NYRA CEO and president Dave O’Rourke has certainly taken notice.
“The bet numbers and the number of people the sportsbook has signed up for are astounding. The market has expanded and there are a lot of sports fans on these platforms, so,” said O’Rourke. Our strategy is to bring racing to these platforms.” “Sports books are creating a market right now and we’re looking to get a part.”
Finally, on March 10, the NYRA announced that the NYRA is partnering with Caesars to launch Caesars Racebook, a new equestrian Pre-Deposit application, in the spring. The Caesars platform will essentially be the “white label” of NYRA Bets ADW’s thriving NYRA and the app offers bets on over 250 races and the full NYRA component of live video, broadcast, broadcast Race replays and odds tips.
“Following the successful launch of Caesars Sportsbook (in New York), we are excited to launch Caesars Racebook in partnership with NYRA Bets,” said Dan Shapiro, senior vice president and chief development officer, Caesars Digital. . “NYRA hosts world-class horse races, and NYRA Bets have access to the best horse racing content from around the world, including from races run by Caesars. proudly supporting the horse racing industry and introducing the Caesars Racebook app and Caesars Rewards for horse racing bettors.”
After the NYRA became BetMGM’s first horse racing partner a year ago, O’Rourke sees partnering with another major gambling organization like Caesars as another step forward to a strategy launched a few years ago with FOX Sports aims to expand the NYRA’s presence on national sports networks to its current state of close to 800 hours.
“The end game is fully incorporated into their app. That’s where we think we’ll see the biggest results, and where the best finish for the race is, by including content. our content along with all other sports content to bet in front of a possible audience,” said O’Rourke. “That aligns with our TV strategy of pushing racing into the mainstream. You start by showing people the best racing and then give them the ability to interact with it through the app. put a sportsbook or ADW in their hands. If you don’t, people definitely won’t convert to racing. Racing is a great product. We just need to introduce it to people.”
In addition to the prospect of increasing staking dollars, the deal with Caesars also promises to provide the NYRA with some significant funding and marketing.
While Caesars will offer items such as premium seating at Racecourse Saratoga As a reward for its Racebook customers, earlier in January, Caesars announced that Caesars had become a sponsor of the men’s (or open) division of the NYRA 3-year-old Turf Triple. Going forward, the $1 million race trio will be called the Caesars Belmont Derby Invitational Stakes (G1T), the Caesars Saratoga Derby Invitational Stakes (G1T) and the Caesars Jockey Club Derby Invitational Stakes (G3T).
“Caesars is a great partner,” said O’Rourke. “They’ve been into horse racing. They know the sport and are dedicated to it.”
Caesars currently operates a harness race at Harrah’s Hoosier Park, Indianapolis horseshoe, Harrah’s Philadelphia, and Eldorado Gaming Scioto Downs. In 2021, Caesars announced plans to build and operate a Harrah’s Thoroughbred racetrack and casino in Columbus, Neb. Caesars’ involvement in motorsport extends to its role as sponsor and host of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association’s National Paralympic Championships at Horseshoe Las Vegas.
While the race in the Caesars Sportsbook app can be a year or more, there’s no guarantee that Caesars spokespeople like JB Smoove, Halle Berry and the Manning Brothers will show up at an NYRA track, O’ Rourke views the association with the Caesars brand as an important first step in a long but important process of introducing a new and youthful silverfish to NYRA and horse racing.
“Racing has done an admirable job at what we’ve been able to do over the last couple of decades. There are a lot of eyeballs on the Triple Crown and ADWs have signed up for a lot of accounts. Saratoga is a strong brand. strong for us. Breeders’ Cup,” said O’Rourke. “It’s our strategy with television coverage of America Day at the Race, to show racing in a way that is more relevant to other sports so we can educate people and bring them to life. I think it’s working and any distribution from the sportsbook should make the country grow over the next decade.We’re seeing strength in our bet handle right now and I believe That’s because of our presence on television. That’s fascinating. What we’ve done with TV is not that you get immediate results, but that we’ve implemented this strategy. three or four years, we started to see positive results.It helped our winter race at Aqueduct race track and our partners like Oaklawn Park. “
Parlays and backers have proven to be popular items in this new and huge wave of sports betting and O’Rourke sees similar options as beneficial for racing in the quest A new customer.
“If we had the opportunity to create a backing bet, I could totally see it as a product that gets in the race for all of us into the game,” he added. “We want to get young people involved in racing and sports betting and betting is tailored for that.”
Another option involves the long-anticipated fixed-odds launch in New Jersey.
Fixed odds, which have proven extremely popular with horse racing fans overseas, especially in Australia and New Zealand, allow gamblers to lock in the odds, unlike betting pari-mutuel where the odds can fluctuate up or down after placing a bet.
Since customers receive fixed odds when they place their bets on a sporting event, the introduction of that type of bet has been embraced by key race executives such as O’Rourke and Monmouth Park CEO and President Dennis Drazin as a way to entice sports bettors to try horse racing.
Drazin is the father of the expansion of sports betting as a practicing attorney who defied the odds and successfully fought in the US Supreme Court to bring sports betting to New Jersey. That ruling, which scrapped the Amateur and Professional Sports Protection Act of 1992, opened the door for a total of 30 states, including New York, to allow sports betting.
For over a year, Drazin has been working with BetMakers to bring fixed-odds, access and bet types to Monmouth Park and New Jersey. He hopes to introduce it in early 2022 and then in late January wrote an open letter to the racing industry about his hopes for a late-March launch.
Speaking last week, Drazin cited regulatory delays in obtaining the necessary approvals and is now hoping for fixed odds when Monmouth Park opens its 2022 meeting on May 7. .
“It’s not in my hands,” Drazin said. “If that’s the case, we’d have fixed odds right now.”
O’Rourke is also a supporter of the innovative betting system that eliminates any question of a horse’s odds of winning and is keeping an eye on what happens in New Jersey in the hopes of bringing it to New York in the future.
“We wanted to see fixed odds. In New York, there were a lot of moving parts in the gambling scene, so we had to spend some time looking for something similar here. But in the long run. , we’re going to see products emerge,” said O’Rourke. “I believe in the pari-mutuel product and you can be happy with some of the things that fixed odds have to offer. We can place back bets on jockey or even head-to-head bets on jockeys. selected by Andy Serling and Jonathon Kinchen.
“It’s going to happen but we’re well aware doing it in a way that has the least impact on pari-mutuel sites. We agree with Dennis that they’re looking at win-place-show to start. is the right approach Dennis has done a great job as a leader He is truly a leader in the entire field, accepting sports betting and being the first state to have fixed odds I like all the moves he makes and I want to follow them where we can.”
Getting the NYRA involved would be a huge boost as a key component in fixed odds betting is having large enough pools to generate favorable win and loss odds. In 2016, Drazin and Monmouth Park partnered with BetFair to offer exchange bets in New Jersey, but the trial ended 4 years later after failing to add any premium signals beyond Monmouth Park and Woodbine.
Meanwhile, taking advantage of the spike in gambling is a priority for the NYRA.
“When you look at the size of that sports betting market,” says O’Rourke, “even if you get a number out of that bet, that’s a huge deal for horse racing. That’s what we’re trying to capture here.”
