Kentucky Downs, NYRA at impasse over simulcasting contract
Kentucky Downs and the New York Racing Association have been unable to reach an agreement on a simulcasting contract for Kentucky Downs’s races, an impasse that will shut out NYRA patrons from the track’s signal and also result in a partial blackout of NYRA’s Saratoga signal in Kentucky, officials for both sides said Thursday.
Kentucky Downs is scheduled to begin its six-day live racing meet Sunday. Because the track running live in Kentucky determines the simulcast menu for all of the state’s brick-and-mortar locations, the last two days of the Saratoga meet will not be available at racetracks or OTBs in the state. Account-wagering companies will still be able to offer the Saratoga signal in Kentucky.
The lack of an agreement will prevent customers of NYRA’s account-wagering platform from betting on the Kentucky Downs signal, one of the most popular betting products in the country due to large fields in many of its races. Kentucky Downs also will be blacked-out at NYRA’s tracks.
Wagering on Kentucky Downs will be available on DRF Bets.
According to two officials involved in the negotiations, Kentucky Downs raised the price of its simulcast signal this year after shelving plans for a rate hike last year during the coronavirus pandemic. The negotiations also were complicated by NYRA’s practice of treating bets made ontrack through its account-wagering platform as ontrack bets. Track locations are generally charged a lower rate than account-wagering operations.
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The Kentucky Downs meet runs through Sept. 12. The officials cautioned that it is possible that the impasse could be broken by the start of the meet, though both sides consider the talks off for now.