Harness racing has faced many challenges in the past. The latest comes in the form of a proliferation of online gambling.

by Bob Duff

Editor’s note: This is the first of a regular column focusing on the intersection of harness racing and the greater gambling world.

Over the years, horse racing has been written off more often than a lobbyist’s lunch. The lottery was going to do in the sport during the 1970s. Two decades later, casino gambling began to thrive and the death knell was again sounding for the equine set.

The latest boogeyman coming to get horse racing is online sports betting and online casinos. Now that you’d be able to legally bet on any sport, from anywhere, at any time, surely horse racing was doomed.

However, much like Madonna’s career, there’s just no stopping the people who race horses. They always find a way. And to their credit, it must be noted that some of the more innovative in the industry continue to locate methods of working with these supposed threats that are actually proving beneficial to the sport.

When casinos began to thrive, tracks countered by partnering with the casino operators to offer slot parlors on site at the track. In doing so, they were bringing an entirely new audience to the racetrack and exposing them to the sport of kings.

HORSE RACING INDUSTRY SETS PACE

In fact, it could even be argued that the racing industry was paving the way for the path now being followed by online sports betting. In the early ’90s, when it was becoming apparent that live racing wasn’t offering the level of action and excitement that was proving to be enticing to the younger set, the powers that be wound up solving the problem with simulcasting. Suddenly, you could go to the track and place wagers on racing from around the globe, throughout the day and watch those races live via satellite on televisions at the track.

It’s said that in any industry, you need to adapt in order to survive and horse racing is a sport that is continually reinventing itself. Long before the Internet was in vogue, OTB parlors made it possible to wager on a race without even going to the track. Telephone betting was another method developed to make it even easier to place a wager on any race. This form of wagering progressed to the point where you could open an account and access the races upon which you had action on your TV right in your own home.

Today, it’s possible to wager online on horse racing in 40 of the 50 states. The best of these online horse racing betting sites also offers the opportunity to live stream the races as you are betting on them.

WOODBINE TEAMS UP WITH BET365

While in the majority of cases, wagering on horse racing in North America remains a separate entity from the online sports betting sites, that hasn’t stopped several North American racetracks from partnering with online sportsbooks.

For instance, when legal and regulated sports betting launched in Kentucky, nine of the online sportsbooks were opting to partner with racetracks. Caesars teamed up with The Red Mile, while six licenses were agreed to in conjunction with Churchill Downs, including FanDuel.

In New Jersey, FanDuel is partnered with The Meadowlands, while Caesars teams with Monmouth Park.

Ontario horse racing powerhouse Woodbine Entertainment Group opted to take a sports betting partnership to the next level. Late in 2023, they teamed up with global sports betting leader Bet365 to make wagering on horse racing available to Ontario sports bettors through Bet365’s Ontario site.

Working with the provincial and federal governments, as well as the Canadian pari-mutuel agency, Woodbine and Bet365 developed the technology to make this partnership — a first for the province’s online sports betting industry — a reality.

The solution they arrived at is exclusively available to Bet365’s customers and gives players with accounts on Bet365’s platform seamless access to pari-mutuel wagering on horse racing.

“As the sports betting sector in Ontario continues to mature, Woodbine Entertainment is poised to be a leader, and partnering with Bet365 will help us do just that,” former Woodbine Entertainment CEO Jim Lawson said at the time Bet365 began its partnership with WEG.

At the Bet365 Sportsbook Ontario site, wagering is now available on racetracks from around North America, all of this access being operated by Woodbine Entertainment Group. In turn, Bet365 and Woodbine entered into a four-year marketing partnership. This agreement makes Bet365 the official online sports betting partner of Woodbine Entertainment. They are receiving exclusive branding opportunities in the sports betting category on-site at Woodbine Racetrack, in network television and simulcast broadcasts, across digital properties and virtual signage.

Instead of horse racing’s power brokers seeing online sports betting as a problem and a threat to their existence, they’re finding solutions that work for both industries and will serve to grow horse racing by offering access to the sport to a new audience.