Vying for Position
Las Vegas casino developer Steve Wynn, CEO of Wynn Resorts, has joined New York-based Excelsior Racing Associates in a bid to run thoroughbred racing in New York. The New York Racing Association (NYRA) currently holds the license, but it expires on Dec. 31, 2007. The main contenders for the license--Excelsior, Empire Racing, NYRA and Capital Play--are scheduled to present their plans during a two-day hearing this week, detailing how they would run Aqueduct, Belmont and Saratoga race tracks and video slot machines at Aqueduct.
Big Threats from Bill Hill
William Hill has threatened to pull its backing for British horse racing if the country's major racecourses pull out of their deal with Satellite Information Services (SIS), a 50 percent bookmaker-owned company which currently has the monopoly on providing live betting-shop pictures from racetracks.
It is understood the Amalgamated Racing Company (AMRAC), equal parts racecourses and betting shops provider Alphameric, has put together a dossier alleging SIS and the Bookmakers Afternoon Greyhound Services organization (BAGS), which supplies programming to SIS, have behaved in an anti-competitive manner.
The consortium of racecourses involved with SIS, Racing U.K. and Ascot are currently planning to break the SIS monopoly and launch their own channel, which will be known as Turf TV, for sale to betting shops. The case could reach the courts.
Animal Rights Group Spars with Betfair
Betfair is facing pressure from animal rights group Fight Against Animal Cruelty in Europe (FAACE) for its latest Grand National ad, which FAACE says relishes the prospect of horses dying in the name of entertainment and gambling. FAACE chairman Tony Moore called the ad, which depicts a jockey falling from his horse alongside the slogan 'Long shots are only long shots until the favourites fall,' "absolutely sickening."
Betfair spokesman Tony Calvin said "falling" was being used metaphorically, not literally, adding: "The message we are trying to put across is that the odds change throughout the race, according to horses failing to perform as expected."
Live from Latin America
Two Latin American racecourses, Club Hípico de Santiago and Hipódromo Chile, and U.S. racecourse operator Magna Entertainment signed an agreement with the Latin American Racing Channel, enabling some Chilean races to be broadcast in United States. The simulcasting agreement will run as a trial phase until the end of 2007.