According to yesterday's Las Vegas Sun, the next step of MI Entertainment, the newly created racing empire of Frank Stronach, will be "the creation of an off-track, subscriber-based betting network encompassing telephones, interactive telvision and the Internet. This network will have exclusive rights to broadcast races from Santa Anita, Gulfstream and Golden Gate in three years."
The article, written by David Strow, said that through such a network, a subscriber could use a
set-top box to place live wagers from home on races being broadcast from around the country and that MI intends to broadcast the content through a variety of media, including satellite television, cable television and the Internet. Strow quoted one of MI Entertainment's new directors, casino executive J. Terrence Lanni, chairman of MGM Grand, as saying, "Like many industries, you're seeing a lot of consolidation. The racing industry is going through the same thing. This company will be one of two dominant players in the horse racing industry."
Lanni told Strow that he was not currently a Magna shareholder, but that he intends to acquire shares on the open market. He said that while his compensation had not been determined, it probably would include shares as part of the package.
A second Vegas executive, Glenn Schaeffer, president of Mandalay Resort Group, also is being added to the MI Entertainment board. Graham Orr, executive vice president of Magna, told Strow that Lanni and Schaeffer "bring the entertainment aspect" to MI Entertainment. "Twenty years ago," he said, "Vegas was very different than it is today because of entertainment. We're trying to adopt that same philosophy in a different way." The decision to enter the interactive television field, which Stronach had hinted at
earlier, widens that already highly competitive field.