Horse racing with fixed odds tends to be a long-standing feature of more sophisticated betting countries such as the United Kingdom or Australia. As with internet gaming, sports wagering, and other types of regulated gambling, the United States is playing catch-up.
Betting on horse racing is a staple of the US gambling sector, but a new odds system might bring the sport a lot more attention in the months and years ahead.
New Jersey Senate Bill S3090, which was signed in August 2021, allows for fixed-odds wagering inside the state, with half of the proceeds after expenditures going back into the racing business.
According to Rick Wolf, senior vice president of B2B partnerships at Spotlight Sports Group, much of the sector is treading carefully while paying attention to New Jersey. In the same way, sports betting was introduced in the USA. New Jersey will lead the way while politicians and stakeholders in other states will wait to watch how things play out before taking strong action.
Wolf claims that it took «almost a year» to develop a commercial model that racing stakeholders would embrace to protect pari-mutuel wagering streams.
Michele Fischer at SIS believes it is critical to avoid viewing New Jersey as a model to emulate because it is not yet operational. She points out that fixed-odds wagering is permitted under New Jersey law as a separate category for racetracks rather than including it in a sportsbook.
It remains to be seen whether Colorado beats New Jersey to the punch. Meanwhile, operators and other investors weigh the benefits and drawbacks of fixed-odds horse racing.
According to industry stakeholders, this betting sector has had success in recent years, despite appearing to sink into the background, overshadowed by its flashier siblings.
Alan Casey, CEO of AllSported, believes that many people underestimate the popularity of horse racing in the United States.
Casey went on to say that the Kentucky Derby draws a massive crowd each year, both to the courses and to watch the action on TV. Off-track betting also accounts for a significant proportion of wagering.
Tom Waterhouse of Waterhouse VC is a racing industry veteran, first as an on-course bookie and subsequently as a corporate executive. He claims that there hasn't been the same increase in prize money in the United States as in Australia.
Waterhouse believes that horse racing has an outstanding possibility of becoming a supplementary offering to US online sports betting.
Aside from the additional income streams and new user betting chances, fixed-odds wagering presents a unique opportunity to US punters: races that run around the clock.
Alan Casey pointed out that a continually changing market is more exciting because clients may try to beat closing lines rather than making a bet and letting the pool determine whether the bet's value grows or decreases. Casey believes that this re-establishes the customer's power.
According to Christian Stuart of BetMakers, the nature of fixed-odds wagering appeals to sports bettors, providing operators with the potential to engage a new audience. He claims that the always-on availability of racing allows bookmaker’s platforms to get a more extensive schedule of material from across the world.
The majority of stakeholders agree. Fixed-odds betting should play an important role in horse racing's future. Furthermore, most people anticipate it will become the standard within the next several years.
Casey believes that rather than canonising it, the aim should be to educate racetracks on how it may help their current operations. Furthermore, he adds that it will be critical to ensure that data distributors do not take too large a cut so that operators can provide competitive pricing.
Tom Waterhouse is bullish on fixed odds' prospects, stating he would be «extremely astonished» if it did not develop to account for the bulk of racing turnover.
The bulk of client numbers will eventually have fixed odds,
— he stated.
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