FIRST
TURN
SEPTEMBER
17
Fewer choices
by James Scully
The MidAtlantic Cooperative, which consists of 19 tracks and
their off-track facilities and account wagering services,
announced Tuesday that it will no longer offer simulcasts from
Belmont Park. It has nothing to do with signal rates. The dispute
centers upon in-home wagering.
As a result, bettors in Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia are now being denied
access to wagering on Belmont.
Martin Lieberman, the executive director of the MidAtlantic
Cooperative, said NYRA would permit limited account wagering in
Pennsylvania and New Jersey, but it had conveyed those rights to
TVG in the other states.
“This is not an economic dispute,” Lieberman said.
“We want all of our members to be able to offer their fans
account wagering on the New York races in the Mid-Atlantic region.
NYRA, through its deal with TVG, has acted to limit wagering
opportunities.”
He explained that TVG has no presence or authority to take
bets in some of the states.
That leaves a major impasse in a market that contributes more
than 20 percent of the national handle.
The old saying holds “Money makes the mare go” and
money is the root of the problem. More than $15 billion was
wagered in the United States last year on Thoroughbred racing.
That’s a lot of money, and most of it is simulcasting. Tracks,
and even account-wagering services like TVG in their relationship
with NYRA, are starting to step forth to claim what they feel is
their fair share, and it’s getting to be that nobody can work
together.
Magna made a move to restrict the marketplace last year. They
have no interest in joining hands with Churchill or anybody else
and decided that they had to control every dollar wagered in-home
on their product through their own account-wagering service.
Exclusivity has resulted in lower handles at Gulfstream, Santa
Anita and other Magna-owned tracks.
Now many racing fans in the Mid-Atlantic region can’t get a
bet down on Belmont. It’s going to hurt the total handle for
Belmont’s Fall Meet and impact the numbers for Aqueduct and
Saratoga.
The sport continues to alienate the people who drive the
industry.
Will it get more difficult for racing fans to place a bet from
home? It unfortunately looks that way. You may eventually need
five different accounts to play Saratoga, Del Mar, Santa Anita,
Churchill and Monmouth Park by phone or computer.
Why bother? The industry is dependent upon wagering dollars,
but they just don’t care about those doing the betting.