I enjoyed the first day of March Madness—the NCAA men's basketball tournament—in the sports betting area at a casino in southwestern Indiana.
As many of my friends are also racing fans, it surprised us to learn that while we could bet on any of the day's college basketball games, NBA games, or nearly every other sport, racing was not available for wagering. While the entire group of us wagered on the basketball games, a smaller number huddled around our phones to watch and wager on the races from Oaklawn Park.
On this day racing missed a chance for the racing fans in our group to bring over the basketball fans in our group as we put some of our betting money toward Thoroughbred racing. And while I've often advocated in this column for fixed-odds wagering on racing—that would be great—in this instance just having pari-mutuel wagering and a TV or two devoted to racing would have created a terrific opportunity for the sport.
As the numbers have made very clear in recent months and years, the number of race days is declining. It's time for the tracks, horsemen, advance-deposit wagering platforms, racing channels, tote companies, and content managers to sit down and come up with a way to market the racing that we do have to people. (And if this effort sees success, it's also the best way to eventually increase race days.)
Bettors are largely supporting the product that's available, as the decline in overall wagering typically has not been as dramatic as the decline in race dates. This has resulted in average wagering per race day actually finishing up in many recent quarters, including the first quarter of 2024, when average wagering per race day was up 4.75% to $3,439,724.
The total United States races offered in 2023, 31,746, was down 13% from 2018. When compared with five years before, handle actually was up 3.4%, but the concern is that gains made during the COVID years appear to be going away as handle is down 4.6% since 2021. While handle declines have not been as dramatic as the decline in races, it seems a reasonable goal for the sport's leaders to find ways that bettors at least maintain their level of wagering on the available product.
To achieve that goal, industry factions are going to have to work together. Unfortunately, that type of cooperation typically has eluded racing, but it likely would be needed to bring about some of the ideas I'll list below—not to mention any better ideas they may come up with in working together.
- As sports betting proliferates, it's important that racing take advantage of new opportunities. While fixed-odds wagering on racing through mobile platforms hasn't made much progress, it's been encouraging to see giants such as FanDuel and DraftKings to provide some synergy with their pari-mutuel platforms and promotion of the race wagering. Racing needs to keep that going and build on it.
- As noted above, racing also needs to be moving into all of the new brick and mortar outlets that offer sports wagering. The instance that I outlined above should be shocking to racing's leaders. One advantage of getting into all of these outlets is that every time they market and bettors turn out to wager on the Super Bowl or the NCAA tournament, racing will get a chance to capture some eyeballs. Racing needs to be offered in all of these emerging outlets.
- While we all regret the number of race days has declined, surely there are opportunities to market this slimmed-down sport. With fewer race dates, it should be easier than ever to stagger race start times. Beyond coordinating signals to keep races from starting at the same times, tracks also should look at staggering dates to provide some action every day of the week and look at opportunities such as morning racing or late-night racing. Customers have differing schedules and perhaps racing can make a connection there.
- Regional cooperation and beyond—think California and ways of working with that important racing state—has the potential to improve field size at our tracks. Studies have documented that races with larger fields generate increased handle.
- If the industry wants to increase wagering on the tracks available, it again needs to invest in its tote and information technology, especially if it's not going to embrace fixed-odds wagering. Beyond improved integrity and reliability, an improved tote could do things such as provide will-pays for wagers beyond exactas and doubles to include pick 3s, trifectas, pick 4s, superfectas, and so on. At larger tracks, it perhaps could allow bettors to select their own pick 3s or pick 4s…play any three or four races on the card that the bettor likes as a pick 3. There would be more opportunities for multi-track wagers.
In short, an improved tote could provide information that would make the racing that is available more compelling for horseplayers.
- Another idea, and I suspect an improved tote also would be needed to make this one a reality, is to offer fluctuating takeout. This could be based on race days—perhaps bettors who wager Monday through Wednesday would see a reduced takeout on wagers—or on field size—larger fields would kick in higher rakes for wagers while smaller fields would see reduced rakes. Bettors more concerned about takeout would have opportunities on certain days of the week. Larger field sizes offer a better wagering product, making higher takeout more tolerable for players.
These are the types of innovations that are needed to make the racing that we do have more compelling. When we start to see the overall wagering improve despite a decline in race days, that will be the trend that has the potential to increase race days. Change is needed to turn that around; it's not just going to happen.
