Churchill Downs Inc. has reached an agreement to provide access to its account-wagering operation to DraftKings, an additional step in the company’s new strategy of partnering with sports-betting companies to expand the scope of its mobile pari-mutuel operations. Under the multi-year agreement, Churchill and DraftKings will debut a service called “DK Horse” that will serve as an entryway on DraftKings’s mobile application to Churchill’s twinspires.com account-wagering operation. Churchill and DraftKings said in a release that the service will launch in “the coming months.” Two years ago, Churchill launched its own sports-betting operation, but the company shelved the plans earlier this year due to the intense competitive environment in the sports-betting market. The company has indicated that it will instead attempt to get carriage for twinspires.com on existing sports-betting applications to leverage the immense amount of marketing dollars being spent by the companies to gain customers. In the joint release, Churchill said that the DK Horse application will be a “standalone app” on the DraftKings site, and that customers will be required to make separate deposits to bet on horse racing. In essence, the agreement will provide a gateway to twinspires.com on the DraftKings site, through a so-called “white label” interface. :: DRF Bets members get FREE DRF Past Performances - Formulator or Classic. Join now! “Plans to integrate DK Horse into the DraftKings product suite will be announced at a later date,” the release said. In September, Churchill reached an agreement with FanDuel, a significant competitor to DraftKings, to continue to provide the live television broadcast rights to the company for its stable of tracks. FanDuel is the owner of TVG, the horse racing broadcast network and account-wagering operation that was recently rebranded as FanDuel TV. Churchill was already a partner with TVG on its broadcast rights, which do not include the streaming rights. Sports betting has exploded across the U.S. since the Supreme Court ruled in 2018 that states had a right to legalize the practice. Sports-betting sites currently offer fixed odds on their propositions, while horse racing relies on pari-mutuel betting, a system that gives the pool hosts a predictable stream of income by scraping a percentage of every bet before payoffs are distributed. “We are excited to collaborate with Churchill Downs Incorporated, not only to give our existing customers an opportunity to engage with pari-mutuel horse racing, but also to acquire news customers efficiently during marquee horse racing moments,” said Jason Robins, the chief executive of DraftKings, in the release. “Due to the structure of the agreement, we expect this new product offering to be immediately profitable.” Churchill concentrates its marketing budget for twinspires.com in the weeks leading up to the Kentucky Derby, by far the most popular racing event in the U.S. According to Churchill’s financial statements, twinspires.com had revenue of $396.9 million in 2021. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.