NYRA, Churchill reach ADW agreement

Churchill Downs Inc. and the New York Racing Association have reached a deal to restore each other’s signals on their account-wagering operations, two days after a blackout began because of a contractual dispute, according to both sides.

The agreement was ironed out between top officials of Churchill and NYRA on Friday morning. Bill Carstanjen, the chief executive officer of CDI, was in Saratoga on Friday due to Thursday’s Jockey Club Round Table and Friday’s Hall of Fame ceremony, which honored Aristides, the winner of the first Kentucky Derby, in 1875.

In a one-sentence release, Churchill said that “following conversations with NYRA, both sides have compromised and mutually agreeable terms have been reached.” NYRA used substantially similar language in a release announcing the deal as well.

Officials said on Friday that no terms of the new arrangement would be disclosed.

Saratoga will host one of its biggest days on racing on Saturday, with a 13-race card that features the Grade 1 Whitney Stakes, the Grade 1 Saratoga Derby, and the Grade 1 Test Stakes.

The dispute centered on NYRA’s attempt to get a one percent increase to the source-market fee paid by Churchill’s account-wagering operation, Twinspires.com, according to officials. Source-market fees are generally assessed on wagers made by residents of the state where the host track, in this case, Saratoga, is located.

Churchill and NYRA both announced on Wednesday morning that they had pulled their signals and video content from each other’s account-wagering operations due to the dispute. The two companies also pulled their simulcasting signals from bricks-and-mortar locations that each controlled.

According to a NYRA source, New York customers of Twinspires.com bet $150 million last year.

The Churchill-NYRA dispute was the second impacting the NYRA signal this summer. One week prior to the start of the Saratoga meet on July 11, a contract between NYRA and FanDuel, the owner of TVG, expired. After eight days of off-and-on negotiations, the two sides reached a new deal on the morning of July 11.

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