NYRA cuts off live signal to TVG

Live races from Belmont Park in New York and from the two other tracks operated by the New York Racing Association will not be available on TVG this year for the first time in 20 years, according to officials for both companies.

Representatives of both NYRA and TVG described a short round of negotiations in which NYRA offered TVG a deal that would allow it to continue to broadcast the races alongside NYRA’s other broadcast partners, but that deal was not acceptable to TVG. As a result, races from Belmont Park, which opens a rescheduled live meet Wednesday, will be available live on the Fox Sports family of networks and MSG+, a regional network, but not on TVG.

“We are disappointed that after a 20-year partnership, and at such a crucial time for the sport, racing fans will be inconvenienced because television coverage of Belmont Park’s races will not be available on either TVG or our simulcasts of ‘Trackside Live’ on NBCSN,” said Kip Levin, chief executive officer of TVG, which is owned by a gambling conglomerate.

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The development comes as NYRA continues to strengthen its relationship with Fox Sports, which began broadcasting live racing from NYRA tracks in 2016. Since then, the network’s affiliates have added more and more live racing coverage from NYRA, and this year, it began adding additional live coverage from other tracks during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to a near shutdown in all major sports and little live product for the networks to offer. Churchill Downs has also gone to Fox Sports for live coverage of its races.

Tony Allevato, NYRA’s chief revenue officer (and a former executive vice president and executive producer at TVG), said that Fox Sports “has significantly increased its commitment to horse racing every year” since 2016, in a statement seeking comment about the lack of TVG coverage.

“This year, Fox Sports presented NYRA with the opportunity to further expand national television coverage of Belmont Park,” Allevato said. “We jumped at the opportunity to provide horseplayers and racing fans with more hours of live horse racing than ever before.”

NYRA operates its own account-wagering company, NYRA Bets, and racetracks are increasingly eager to promote their races on broadcast networks that are affiliated with their ADWs. Racing companies earn far more revenue from betting on their own account-wagering platforms than on competing account-wagering platforms. Churchill also owns and operates its own account-wagering company, twinspires.com.