Thoroughbred Idea Foundation

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...

Dan Ross's article from Sunday, February 20 highlighting the many unanswered questions regarding provisions of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) should concern anyone who cares about American racing. For an entity which many are expecting to be vitally important to the future of the sport, it has left much to be desired in the way of its public communications. Just shy of four months from launch, the lack of answers to a major industry publication should concern anyone involved in, or subject to, the new organization. Transparency is...

Full fields. Harmonized rules. Modernized wagering systems and protocols. Transparent officiating. Can these be the future of North American horse racing, and of the greater sport around the world? "Our customers, the bettors, must be at the center of everything we do," Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) Chief Executive Officer Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges told the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation (TIF) last week. "This approach applies to everything we do as a sport. Customers must be satisfied with our approach to horse welfare, to harmonizing betting rules, interference rules, the race schedule we...

Mistakes aside, the Modern Games "scratch" and subsequent fiasco tells us plenty about the state of rule-making and pari-mutuel wagering technology. It might even offer signs into the future of betting on the Breeders' Cup and other big American racing events too. Disregarding a horse for "pari-mutuel purposes" and then running the race with that horse in it, as was done in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf, is equivalent to disregarding the interests of betting customers altogether. The rules need to change. While many questions remain unanswered, and the...

The following is the 11th of a 12-part series on wagering insecurity in American racing from the think tank the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation.  A growing firm in the sports integrity business approached a major racing operator in 2017. "They told us better integrity does not help us bring in more customers and their main focus right now is on growing the customer base." The reality is different in almost every other major racing jurisdiction. Integrity oversight is a necessity to ensure acceptance and participation. Customer and stakeholder confidence is paramount....

This is Part 9 of the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation's (TIF) series "Wagering Insecurity." Faced with remarkable competitive pressure from the rise of legal sports betting, horse racing is at a crossroads. Confidence amongst horseplayers and horse owners is essential to the future sustainability of the sport. Efforts to improve the greater North American Thoroughbred industry will fall flat if its stakeholders fail to secure a foundation of integrity. Achieving this is growing increasingly difficult after the sport has neglected its core base--horseplayers--for decades. "Wagering Insecurity" details some of that neglect,...

   This is Part 7 of the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation's (TIF) series "Wagering Insecurity."    Faced with remarkable competitive pressure from the rise of legal sports betting, horse racing is at a crossroads.    Confidence amongst horseplayers and horse owners is essential to the future sustainability of the sport. Efforts to improve the greater North American Thoroughbred industry will fall flat if its stakeholders fail to secure a foundation of integrity, along with increased transparency of the wagering business and its participants over time. Achieving this is growing increasingly difficult...

This is Part 5 of the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation's (TIF) series "Wagering Insecurity." After five years of contemplating possible actions to improve wagering security, nothing of significance materialized. A December 2008 conference session in Arizona served as a perfect synopsis of the failure. One member of the panel, Kevin Mullally of Gaming Laboratories International, said: "I came here...to learn a little bit more about why the racing industry had managed to be the only component of the gaming industry that had not implemented any serious oversight to its technology." Reached...

This is Part 2 of the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation's (TIF) series "Wagering Insecurity."    Faced with remarkable competitive pressure from the rise of legal sports betting, horse racing is at a crossroads. Confidence amongst horseplayers and horse owners is essential to the future sustainability of the sport. Efforts to improve the greater North American Thoroughbred industry will fall flat if its stakeholders fail to secure a foundation of integrity. Achieving this is growing increasingly difficult after the sport has neglected its core base--horseplayers--for decades. "Wagering Insecurity" details some of that...

This is Part 1 of the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation's (TIF) series "Wagering Insecurity." Faced with remarkable competitive pressure from the rise of legal sports betting, horse racing is at a crossroads. Confidence amongst horseplayers and horse owners is essential to the future sustainability of the sport. Efforts to improve the greater North American Thoroughbred industry will fall flat if its stakeholders fail to secure a foundation of integrity. Achieving this is growing increasingly difficult after the sport has neglected its core base--horseplayers--for decades. "Wagering Insecurity" details some of that neglect,...

Editor's Note: The following is an edited press release from the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation, which is beginning a 12-part series on wagering insecurity next week. The series will be released in two installments per week, and the TDN will carry summaries and links to the 12 articles. The Thoroughbred Idea Foundation (TIF) will launch "Wagering Insecurity," a multi-part series which will examine the current state of oversight of North American Thoroughbred racing and wagering, beginning Tuesday, Apr. 13. In the aftermath of the infamous "Fix Six" at the 2002 Breeders'...

by Thoroughbred Idea Foundation The creation of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) is the most significant development in American racing at the federal level since the passage of the Interstate Horseracing Act in 1978. Questions now being rightly considered include how much HISA will cost and where will its funding originate from. Below, we offer some perspective on the costs. But as the greater industry determines where the funding will come from over time, racing should proactively adopt policies which seek to grow the wagering business. The industry...