One of the biggest horse sales in North America, the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale, ended its 10-day run Wednesday with a modest, COVID-19-related drop in sales from 2019. At the same time, nine horses sold for at least $1 million each. The Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale is one […]
Gambling Industry
Pete Rose Admits He Still Bets on Baseball, 31 Years After MLB Ban
Former Cincinnati Reds player and manager Pete Rose is still seeking reinstatement from Major League Baseball, which banned him from the sport in 1989 for betting on games in which he played and managed. Now, Rose says he still enjoys betting on baseball, though the circumstances of those wagers have […]
New Indictments Handed Down in Servis-Navarro Horse Doping Case
Federal prosecutors handed down superseding indictments Tuesday in the alleged horse doping scandal involving trainers Jason Servis, Jorge Navarro, and 12 other defendants. The new indictments tack on a charge of wire fraud to Servis and veterinarians Alexander Chan and Kristian Rhein. All three pleaded not guilty to the new […]
New Jersey Shatters Online Gambling Records in October, Nevada Lags Behind
New Jersey’s online sports gambling totals went berserk in October, and officials say a billion-dollar handle month is possible by year’s end. Remarkably, officials also reported that online gambling is coming close to making up for all brick-and-mortar losses sustained during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Casino win was 92% of last […]
Illinois Gambling Regulators Took Risks in September, then Watched the Bets Pour In
The state of Illinois took its first sports bet in the week March Madness was canceled. In the months that followed, betting action was negligible. But over the last 90 days, as sports returned, the Prairie State emerged as the Midwest capital of online sports betting. The Illinois Gaming Board […]
Oddsmakers Predicted Presidential Election Outcome More Accurately than Pollsters
As the 2020 US election awaits certification, most (but not all) oddsmakers and sportsbooks are paying out Joe Biden as the winner. Looking back, it was the betting world, not traditional pollsters, that called the election more accurately. More money changed hands on the 2020 election than any event in […]
DraftKings’ Q3 Gains Create Stock Surge, But is Success Sustainable?
Buoyed by a trio of new states approving gambling on Election Day and continued progress with professional sports partnerships, DraftKings reported some big third quarter wins on Friday. As a result, shares of DraftKings stock jumped more than 10% to end the week after the company released blockbuster quarter-end totals, […]
UCLA to Host Cal on Sunday as Pac-12 Shuffles Schedule to Save Seasons
As COVID-19 infection rates soar to all-time highs nationwide, the Pac-12 is doing its best to juggle schedules and save football seasons. But even the most creative last-minute efforts will still fall short for some. After two teams lost their week two opponents for this weekend, the conference scrambled to […]
NFL Week 10 Quickie: Buffalo/Arizona, Seattle/LA Rams Marquee Matchups
The Bills Mafia invades Arizona when Buffalo takes on Kyler Murray and the Cardinals.Week 10 of the NFL season has a couple of exciting games on the schedule including the Buffalo Bills (7-2) playing at the Arizona Cardinals (5-3). There’s also an NFC West showdown between the first-place Seattle Seahawks […]
It’s Economical How Gramm Won Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge
Proving those who can do, can teach, Marshall Gramm, an economics professor at Rhodes College in Tennessee nailed an Authentic-Improbable exacta in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. The $170,250 score gave him the 2020 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge title. With the late bet, which vaulted Gramm over 429 other top handicappers, […]
Indiana Smashes Online Gambling Records: Now #4 in US Sports Betting
Indiana cracked the top five in online sports betting handle with a bullet as Hoosiers wagered $231 million in October. That number is up more than 11% from September’s in-state, record-setting total of $207 million, and signals $35 million in gross revenue for September and October combined. State officials estimate […]
New Jersey Moves One Step Closer to Fixed-Odds Horseracing Wagering
A bill expanding and legalizing fixed-odds wagering on New Jersey horse races emerged from committees in that state’s senate – a little more than a week after being introduced in New Jersey’s state legislature. The bill, allowing permanent fixed odds on races, enjoys bipartisan support in the state legislature. The […]
Clubs, Operators Scramble After Spain Bans Soccer Team Gambling Sponsorships
Today, 17 of the 20 clubs in La Liga – Spain’s top-flight soccer league – enjoy some sort of sponsorship deal with one or more gaming firms. By next season, the Spanish government says that number will be zero. Last week, the Spanish government approved the Royal Decree on Commercial […]
WynnBET Expansion Lights Fiscal Path for Wynn Resorts
An announcement that Wynn Resorts is in the process of investing heavily in its online gambling product, combined with the news that a COVID-19 vaccine may be in the offing, resulted in a mammoth win for the resort and entertainment giant (NASDAQ: WYNN) as its stock price surged more than 22% Monday […]
Nebraska Racing Gets a Casino Boost from the State’s Voters
While voters in three states recently approved sports betting in Election Day referendums, Nebraska voters overwhelmingly passed three state constitutional amendments of their own, allowing casino gambling at horseracing tracks throughout the Cornhusker State. All three measures, labeled Initiatives 429, 430, and 431, passed by nearly 2-to-1 margins. This allows […]
After Breeders’ Cup Classic Win, Authentic Rides Off to Retirement
After watching his gate-to-wire victory in Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Classic, it took Authentic’s owners barely 24 hours to retire the three-time Grade 1 winner at the end of his 3-year-old season. The Kentucky Derby champion heads to Spendthrift Farm, the large Kentucky breeding farm and majority owner of Authentic. He […]
Pac-12 Down Two More Teams Due to COVID-19 Outbreak
With COVID-19 cases in the US setting a single-day record of 120,000 on Thursday, the Pac-12 continues its struggles with the pandemic as the second matchup of its delayed season kickoff was canceled on Friday. Officials from the University of Utah announced that they found positive cases among an undisclosed […]
Breeders’ Cup Classic: Picking a Winner in this All-Star Field is a Puzzle
If you’re grasping to understand how good the field is for this year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic truly is, it’s easiest to picture what an All-Star horse race would look like. The Mid-fall Classic, as it were. If the Mid-fall Classic offered a $6 million purse, two Triple Crown race winners, […]
ESPN Eliminates 500 Jobs, 300 Through Layoffs
ESPN’s financial woes, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, have resulted in a massive layoff of 300 staffers along with the elimination of 200 currently unfilled job openings. The layoffs will be spread throughout the sports cable empire, with on-air personnel being spared initially, according to a memo from ESPN Chairman […]
Three Breeders’ Cup Contenders Worth Your Attention
The Breeders’ Cup Classic, Turf, Distaff, and – to a lesser extent, Juvenile – are the Breeders’ Cup races everyone follows. That’s understandable, especially in a year like this, when the Classic is a virtual All-Star race and when the Distaff offers one of the best duels of all 14 […]