After antecedently saying an online land site for fixed-odds Equus caballus racing would launch before the premier event of its meet, Monmouth Park ran its 14-race Haskell Stakes scorecard without launching its MonmouthBets.com app inwards New Jersey.
Dennis Drazin, chairman and CEO of the Oceanport thoroughbred track, told Casino.org in a Sun evening email that Monmouth’s app “will be unrecorded soon” and that has been approved by the state.
Actually, it was ready to launch and fully sanctioned for Haskell Day,” Drazin said. “Betmakers and Monmouth Mungo Park need to wee sure everything is perfected for frozen odds as we bowl it out smoothly.”
Monmouth Mungo Park introduced fixed-odds racing at the data track when its take on started in May. That was the culmination of a two-year effort. In 2020, Monmouth and the New Jersey Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association signed a deal with Australian-based BetMakers Technology Group to make grow a fixed-odds production for the track. Last year, the New Jersey Legislature passed a natural law creating a regulatory framework for fixed-odds wagering.
Drazin and Bill Pascrell III, a New island of Jersey lobbyist who has championed fixed-odds wagering for the sport, were constituent of a July 14 venire word on the topic at SBC Summit Frederick North America, an annual sports betting group discussion held in Secaucus, NJ. Pascrell told the audience that the app would live available for the running of the Haskell, a Grade 1 run and 1 of the biggest for 3-year-olds alfresco of the Triple Crown.
Pascrell told Casino.org on Fri afternoon that there were some “tech issues but nil major” holding upwards the launch. Then, on Sabbatum afternoon, he said that the app received its regulatory favorable reception and manufacture certification. Some testing was relieve taking localise on Saturday, but he was optimistic a set in motion would stock-still occur before the race.
Missed Opportunity?
To Drazin’s point, an app that may hold encountered issues on its firstly 24-hour interval would likely have faced challenges winning customers back, especially unexampled bettors to the sport. It also, depending on the inclemency of the glitches, power make attracted more attending than holding off.
Still, non having a fixed-odds wagering site upwardly for the Haskell, especially after making a voluntary announcement, seems same a missed chance for Monmouth Park and the athletics of Equus caballus racing.
The 14-race identity card on Haskell Day is the biggest case during Monmouth’s four-month meet. Saturday’s all-sources pari-mutuel handgrip of $19.9 1000000 was nearly quatern times the size of the track’s all-sources handgrip from the hebdomad before.
And patch it would make only been useable in New Jersey, it stock-still could have generated significant traffic – especially since the run served as the number 1 Grade 1 stakes race for trainer Bob Baffert since reverting from the 90-day hiatus he received from the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission stewards for Medina Spirit’s failed dose try after finally year’s KY Derby.
So, instead of perhaps enticing bettors from New York, Pennsylvania, and MD into making a little thrust for an online bet, fixed-odds wagering was only when available for the 22,138 inwards attendance at Monmouth Saturday. Those patrons accounted for $1.3 million, or rough 6.6%, of the pari-mutuel handle.
At SBC, Pascrell told Casino.org that fixed odds was only uncommitted at half-dozen windows at Monmouth, a small fraction compared to the hundreds of pari-mutuel windows. Despite that, he said in the flesh(p) fixed-odds wagering windows were taking bets amounting to rough 15% of the on-track pari-mutuel handle.
Despite non having the app up and running on Saturday, Drazin said he relieve has good confidence inward Monmouth’s partner.
“BetMakers is doing a outstanding job,” he said. “No concerns.”
About Fixed-Odds Racing
Fixed-odds wagering is being touted as a path to pull in new fans to racing, a boast that has go stagnated inward recent years. In particular, it’s considered a path to draw in those bettors who are into sports betting but either don’t realize or upkeep for pari-mutuel odds, which fluctuate as to a greater extent bettors participate the pool.
So, someone who bets on a horse at 7-1 may check his yield dwindle down if a large summation is wagered later on his pick. The allurement with fixed odds, to both the tiro and the experient handicapper, is you’ll let the betting odds as they were useable when you made your bet.
What it does not ensure is that your fixed-odds wager testament have got a better issue than the pari-mutuel bet. Saturday’s Haskell victor Cyberknife is a good lesson of that.
The Brad Cox-trained horse paid $17.60 for a $2 pari-mutuel bet to win. His initial fixed-odds cost was $7 for a $1 bet (or $14 for a $2 wager), but finisher to stake clip Saturday, Cyberknife was $10 for a $1 bet.