sports betting

No business can change what it does not measure. Racing's public measurement of support, via wagering, hides serious issues. Recent stories have continued to cite declines in total handle, wondering just what is at play. How that handle has been derived has changed dramatically, but that's not reflected in the overall numbers. Over the last century, U.S. racetracks have reported total handle on their races and, for most of that time, it was one metric that accurately depicted the health of the business. But in our modern era of simulcasting,...

Jim McIngvale (Mattress Mack) made history when the Houston Astros won the World Series. He made bets that returned $75 million when they won, the largest win ever in the history of sports betting. The bets were tied into a promotion McIngvale has used many times at his Gallery Furniture Stores in Houston. If he wins the bet, his customers get free mattresses. He's great at getting publicity for himself and his stores, but never had he seen anything like what happened with this bet, the story of which became...

Edited Press Release Churchill Downs Incorporated has entered into a multi-year agreement with FanDuel Group involving different facets of FanDuel's sports wagering, advance deposit wagering and television business. Under the Agreement, CDI will provide certain technology and services to enable FanDuel's customers to place pari-mutuel wagers on horse racing via FanDuel's sports wagering and ADW platforms. CDI will also authorize wagering on CDI's owned or controlled horse racing content via FanDuel's platforms in the United States and grant FanDuel certain television and media rights to broadcast CDI-owned racing content on...

Some 23 years after it debuted, the TVG network underwent a major shift Thursday, its first day not as TVG but as FanDuel TV. There's a new name and a new direction. Between midnight and noon each day, racing coverage will not exist. Instead, the network will feature a number of shows that focus on sports wagering during those hours. While that may not be well received by TVG's loyal viewers, FanDuel executives insist that racing coverage is not going anywhere. Better yet, they believe they can introduce sports bettors...

A compromise agreement on a bill authorizing sports betting in Massachusetts was reached Monday, which could be the final piece of the puzzle when it comes to horse racing returning to the Bay State. Behind the scenes, a group of investors has been working to open a new track in the state ever since Suffolk Downs closed its doors in 2019, but understood that their plans would not be practical without there being a source of revenue beyond what can be made off of selling bets. With sports betting about...

According to a report on the website Legals Sports Report, TVG is about to get a new look, one that could include less emphasis on horse racing. The website is reporting that TVG will be renamed FanDuel TV, which will become the first "watch and wager TV Network in the U.S." TVG2 will be renamed FanDuel Racing. The FanDuel Group, a huge player in the sports wagering and daily fantasy sports markets, is the parent company of TVG. The changes are expected to take place in September. Programming geared towards...

Like fast-falling dominoes, the 2018 Supreme Court decision flinging open the legal doors to sports betting has already led to 30 states allowing some form of this gambling, and now it's California's turn to potentially join the party, with two such initiatives on the state ballot this November. The first is Proposition 26, an initiative called the Tribal Sports Wagering Act spearheaded by American Tribes which, in short, would allow sports wagering at Tribal casinos and at approved racetracks in California. Most crucially, it still prohibits mobile or on-line wagering...

The ever-expanding business of betting in America is in a difficult-to-predict flux right now, and one entity's risk is another's potential reward. "The gaming industry, generally, and horse racing, as a part of that, is one of the most dynamic industries on the scene today," Patrick E. Brown, a New York-based attorney who specializes in gaming and public policy, told TDN in a phone interview. "There's the obvious increase in sports betting and fantasy wagering, plus new technologies and advances making it so easy to wager. It's also way more...

The speed of legal sports betting's expansion across America in the last four years has surprised even the most bullish advocates. On any given day in a majority of states, Americans can bet on just about any outcome in the world of sports. The next point in a game of tennis. The total runs in the next inning of a baseball game. The number of corner kicks for a team in a soccer match. But if you legally wanted to bet on the Kentucky Derby other than the day before...

LEXINGTON, KY--The Association of Racing Commissioners International (ARCI) announced the official launch of the Sports Betting Regulators Association (SBRA) during the closing session of the group's 88th Annual Conference on Safe Horses and Honest Sport. ARCI president and CEO Ed Martin explained that the formation of the SBRA has been in the works for several years and was organized to meet a growing need to support government agencies assigned with the responsibility of regulating sports betting within their jurisdiction. Sports betting in America continues to expand and has now been...

House Bill 606, which would legalize sports betting in Kentucky, passed by a margin of 58 to 30 Friday in the Kentucky House and will now be sent to the Senate. The bill will also legalize fantasy sports and on-line poker. The revenue will be used to support the state pension fund. The bill was sponsored by Rep. Adam Koenig (R-Erlanger), a longtime supporter of sports betting in the Blue Grass State. Koening estimates that sports betting will generate at least $22.5 million in new state tax revenue each year....

Kentucky State representative Adam Koenig (R-Erlanger) introduced four new gaming-related bills Monday, including one (HB 607) dealing with pari-mutuel wagering taxation that includes a provision whereby dividends on pari-mutuel wagers would be rounded to the nearest penny, rather than the nearest $0.10. "This is an exciting step for horseplayers, not only in Kentucky but really anyone in America or around the world who bets into the pools offered on Kentucky racing," said Pat Cummings, Executive Director of the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation, which has been a staunch advocate for a switch...