Looking ahead to 2026: vision on fixed odds betting

As Thoroughbred racing enters a new year, it faces the inevitable challenge of learning from the past twelve months and applying those lessons to a new year.

With 2026 just around the corner, BloodHorse has repeated its year-end online survey to ask some of the sport’s leading figures for their views on relevant issues facing the sport.

Through January 2, a select group of panelists will discuss topics such as the most exciting freshman sire for 2026, field size, what competitors tell newcomers they like most about the sport, the size of the foal crop, the Breeders’ Cup and the Triple Crown in the BloodHorse Daily and at www.bloodhorse.com. We continue the series with a question about gambling.

While we realize there are countless other voices, we hope these answers will spark meaningful discussion within the industry.

Anyone wishing to share their views is encouraged to submit them in writing to Editorial@bloodhorse.com for inclusion in our letters to the editor. Longer pieces may be considered for an Industry Voices column.

To access our 2023 year-end survey, click the following link for a pdf version.

Responses have been edited for style and clarity.

Ask: One way people get into racing is through the betting side. Should racing embrace fixed-odds betting? Is racing doing enough to attract customers from the growing sports betting market?

Dennis Drazin, chairman and CEO of Darby Development, which operates Monmouth Park: Fixed odds betting should be embraced by the horse racing industry as it provides an opportunity to grow our position and help embrace a crossover from traditional sports bettors.

Especially in these times when customers are concerned about computer-assisted betting, fixed odds are a solution that we can offer to our customers.

One of the biggest complaints I get from the betting public is the big change in odds at the last second and the substantial change in odds after the horses break out of the gate as the pools are bombarded with CAW volume. Fixed odds offer the betting customer the ability to lock in his odds at the time he bets, regardless of odds fluctuations as the horses leave the gate.

Unfortunately, fixed odds will only succeed if the major racing circuits embrace fixed odds and allow betting on their signal.

When fixed odds were launched on Monmouth Park there were parlay betting on Haskell day which allowed a bettor to combine three stakes races in conjunction with a baseball game. We found that many traditional sports bettors experimented with combined betting and then continued betting on horse racing.

We need to find ways to attract the traditional sports betting gambler to bet on horse racing.

Now that it is common for bettors to bet on sports through their apps and retail locations and the demographics are attracting younger bettors (over 21 years old), we need to add horse racing opportunities to our customers’ betting options, especially as the international horse racing content far exceeds the betting opportunities on other sports (i.e. 30,000 horse races 24/7 versus limited seasons and matches for NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB and NCAA football, to name a few).

If horse racing could capture even as many betting markets as sports like tennis, our market share would grow enormously.

In Australia, fixed odds have greatly increased their hold on horse racing. Their population is 10% of the population of the United States, but their size exceeds ours by more than double.

We need to do a better job of offering our bettors more options to grow our sport.

Dave O’Rourke, CEO and President of the New York Racing Association: NYRA has absolutely embraced fixed odds betting. The rapid expansion of sports betting means that large numbers of gamblers are betting on a fixed-odds product and may not feel comfortable or familiar with the pari-mutuel market. Current New York State law does not allow horse racing to be offered at fixed odds. In addition, we are not allowed to accept fixed-odds bets on our content from bettors in other states.

We have been very active in Albany during multiple legislative sessions to advance legislation that would allow horse racing to sit on the sports betting shelf alongside every other professional sport.

We don’t necessarily view fixed odds as an important source of short-term traction. However, it is a huge marketing opportunity to gain access to a whole new generation of people for whom sports betting is a source of entertainment.

Allowing horse racing to be offered on sports betting platforms would generate significant tax revenue for New York State and create interest in horse racing. That is what we will continue to emphasize during the coming parliamentary term. We are optimistic that we will get there.

Nick Tammaro, track announcer and handicapper at Sam Houston Race Park and player development manager at Sam Houston and Retama Park: I would like to have a limited offering of fixed opportunities, but there are barriers to their implementation that need to be overcome.

Ensuring that players don’t get left out if they win too much or too often is a major concern. Just like ensuring the right liquidity on those markets to make them attractive. Would I like to hand a parlay card to everyone who walks through the door? Sam Houston Race Park and encourage them to choose how many “legs” there are and let them play the card? Certainly. We can make the props on that card a little easier to understand for a newcomer.

The biggest challenge we face in attracting new gamblers, including those more accustomed to sports betting, is getting them to regularly receive a prize that differs from what they think they are getting. We’re not doing enough to convert sports bettors because we have a product that is mispriced and inconsistent from an odds perspective.

Serious consideration should be given to reducing takeout in high turnover pools such as win, place, show and exactas, rather than exclusively larger, horizontal bets that hold money for several hours. Being told that a bet is “retail only” is nice, but a 1% drop in vertical pools has a much bigger impact in the long run.

We also need more price stability, which will require additional efforts to ensure that people get close to the price they think they are getting when the field leaves the gate.

Adam Wachtel, owner/breeder who spends much of his time using Ragozin Sheets to identify and identify potential racehorse purchases: I believe that expanding fixed odds betting to the many markets that do not currently offer it could be an excellent way to attract new punters to the thoroughbred betting market. That said, it’s not clear to me what the data shows in markets like New Jersey that have legalized such betting. My assumption is that it has been very positive.

We all know that the sports betting market has exploded in recent years. The next generation of sports bettors have really taken advantage of the smart betting products currently on the market for so many sports.

Fixed odds betting on horse racing seems like a logical next step to attract some of these customers. I think many of us have gotten a taste of this when betting on Kentucky Derby (G1) futures.

This year I had a bet on the futures Baeza which I posted after its debut. So when he got to the Derby with a chance, that certainly played a role in my betting approach for the Derby. A potential hedging opportunity was created. I think this also applies to the daily bets.

And I believe this would appeal to gamblers who have just started betting on horse racing, or are just starting to think about it. In short, any sensible approach to offering the public new and creative ways to bet on our sport can certainly have a major positive impact.

Judy Wagner, National Horseplayers Championship winner and Hall of Fame member: Horse racing, a love of mine, dabbles. Fixed odds are a mystery to me. Initially I was somewhat against it due to my personal betting patterns/strategy. This is because I am a serious handicapper but a small gambler.

But the CAWs are now so strong that a 6-1 bet often turns into 2-1 or less. If I had known beforehand when betting that I would get 2-1 instead of 6-1, I probably wouldn’t have bet.

Even though I’m a small gambler, is it more important to get my betting dollars or to accommodate the CAW? Of course, they’re putting a lot more dollars through the windows, offshore, or wherever they are. But are we trying to attract a younger audience, new players or strengthen our industry? I’m baffled.

If fixed odds are necessary to level the playing field for players, then I lean towards fixed odds.

As a small player I want the pari-mutuel pools to be on a level playing field, but personally I feel the ship has sailed unless the spurs can get together and agree to close the pools at a certain time before the horses enter the gate.

Horse racing must find a way to remove any doubt about integrity issues. There are so many sports betting opportunities, horse racing needs to stop fighting and work together to promote a strong product that can be marketed to young, new and old loyal customers.