The Revival of Horse Racing Betting Post-Legalization

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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.

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