Woodbine Entertainment has horse racing wagering available on bet365.com and will soon be available on other platforms. Racing is attempting to join the sports betting riches throughout North America and according to a story by Covers.com, “there needs to be “a little more push” and collaboration with operators to educate younger bettors on horse racing.”
Currently Canadian Thoroughbred has been providing content on how to bet on some of the big races at Woodbine and elsewhere; it is just a matter of getting sports bettors to latch on.
From Covers.com – Geoff Zochodne
The struggle is real for the sport of kings.
With the second jewel of the Triple Crown this weekend, it should, in theory, be an ideal time for the horse racing industry to woo new and loyal customers who already bet on sports, especially with the help of partners such as DraftKings and FanDuel.
The same sort of opportunity was presented by the recent Kentucky Derby, which attracted a record amount of wagering this year of $210.7 million, according to Churchill Downs.
But whether sports bettors who dabbled on the Derby stick around for the Preakness Stakes this weekend, or any other racing day, is a real concern for horse racing.
Even with legal sports betting booming, total wagering on U.S. thoroughbred races in 2023 was down 3.7% compared to 2022, to $11.66 billion, according to Equibase.
Jeffrey Gural, who, among other things, is the managing partner of the company that operates the Meadowlands Racetrack in New Jersey, called horse racing “basically a dying business” during a panel last week at the SBC Summit North America conference in Secaucus.
“The real challenge for us as we bring sports players into horse racing is to not just bring them in for the Derby, but to keep them,” said Andrew Moore, general manager of racing at FanDuel, during the same SBC panel. “And the real challenge there is to help those customers to understand the sport, to help them realize what an engaging and enjoyable product it is. So our view is that we can actually grow the sport by having it in the sportsbook, and it’s something that sits very well in that space, especially during the summer when there’s only baseball on.”
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