A metric used by the New York Racing Association to measure price volatility in its exacta pools has dropped by more than half since the association put in restrictions on the amount of bets that can be sent into the pools by computer-assisted wagering groups earlier this year, officials for NYRA said on Friday. The volatility metric, which was developed in partnership with the Thoroughbred Racing and Protective Bureau, has dropped from an average of 5.95 in January, just prior to the restrictions going into effect, to 2.59 since mid-February, according to Jack Jeziorski, the president of NYRA Content Management Solutions. The math behind the metric is complex, but, in simplest terms, it means that the will-pays for exacta bets have, on average, displayed far fewer big swings since the guardrails were put in place. For NYRA, the drop in volatility is an indicator of initial success for the policies it implemented beginning with the Feb. 11 card at Aqueduct to restrict CAW play. The restrictions prevent CAW players from sending more than six bets per second into any of NYRA’s pools within two minutes to post. “I think it’s a healthier market right now in terms of the parimutuel pools,” said David O’Rourke, the chief executive officer of NYRA, who appeared on a conference call Friday with a number of NYRA executives to discuss the impacts of the new restrictions. :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. In 2021, NYRA was the first major racetrack operator to place restrictions on CAW play when it cut off CAW players in the win pool at two minutes to post, which reduced volatility by a substantial degree. NYRA expanded the restrictions this year in the face of continued criticism from many horseplayers that frequent large swings in expected payouts close to post time at other tracks were eroding their confidence in the game. Still, O’Rourke acknowledged that the restrictions have so far cost NYRA revenue. CAW play in NYRA’s pools has dropped from approximately 20 to 22 percent of total handle to 12 to 13 percent of handle, which reduces the amount of wagering revenue NYRA receives from the bets. At the same time, handle from other players has also dropped over the same time frame. O’Rourke said that “a large number of factors” influence overall betting activity on races, including field sizes, weather, and the day of the week in which a race card was held. This winter, NYRA had to cancel nine cards due to weather, and many of the make-up dates swapped weekdays for weekends. Overall, handle in the first quarter was down a total of 23.9 percent, with the decline in CAW play in that time frame accounting for only five points of the drop. O’Rourke stressed that the goal of the restrictions was to establish a new baseline for volatility and not to see an immediate improvement in handle. He said NYRA was hoping to see handle gains from so-called “retail” players in the future, especially as NYRA goes into its Saratoga season and finally moves back to Belmont, which has been completely rebuilt over the past three years and will reopen in the fall. “This is not exactly NYRA’s high season, and I think we’re somewhat on the right track here,” O’Rourke said. “The goal of this was to bring down volatility, so let’s let this play out for a while in the market and see if that really matters.”  O’Rourke said that the wagering revenue declines were “definitely a headwind,” though he said that they were not “existential in any form.”  The NYRA officials said on the call that roughly 20 CAW players were participating in their pools prior to the new restrictions being put in place. The vast majority of the decline in betting came from two CAW players who pulled out of the pools entirely because of the new restrictions, with the remaining players somewhat throttling back their play. Jeziorski said that the remaining CAW players are now sending in the vast majority of their bets just prior to the cutoff, so their play is simply being time-shifted two minutes. He also said that some of the groups continue to send in bets within two minutes to post, though under the restrictions now in place. “Some don’t bet after the cutoff at all, but quite a number of them continue to get in at six bets per second after the cutoff,” Jeziorski said. The NYRA officials also said that the conference call on Friday was scheduled in part to publicize their efforts to mitigate a major source of controversy in the industry at a time when handle has been stagnant across the sport.   “This is the beginning of an effort to educate the public about the benefits to the retail player of having these guardrails,” said Patrick McKenna, NYRA’s vice president of communications. “We’re committed to more of this.” :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.