Panel: Regular Horseplayers Need Options in CRW Age

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Photo: Chad B. Harmon

According to a leading horseplayer and a representative of the New York Racing Association, horse racing needs to find some ways to balance its wagering game in a pari-mutuel space currently dominated by computer-robotic players.

In a panel presenting at The Jockey Club's 2023 Round Table on Matters Pertaining to Racing Aug. 3 in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., horseplayer Marshall Gramm, a professor who essentially teaches a class on betting horses at Rhodes College, and Joe Longo, general manager of NYRA Content Management Solutions, talked about the need for balance in the pari-mutuel markets and some NYRA efforts on that front.

Panel moderator Pat Cummings, executive director of the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation, which advocates for the horseplayer and Thoroughbred owners, presented statistics that showed 109% growth of CRW (also referred to as computer-assisted wagering) wagering since 2003. That table also documented a 64% drop in wagering from all other players. 

CRW bettors frequently employ full staffs of experts in taking on the pari-mutuel game and they account for billions of dollars in pari-mutuel handle—bout a third of all pari-mutuel wagering on Thoroughbred racing in 2022. They then use that volume to leverage significant rebates for their action. The teams use algorithms tied into some pools to determine value and then use batch wagering to make thousands of wagers in an instant where that value is found.

Their success effectively has helped reduce the value of wagering for all other players.

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Gramm noted that CRW players are here to stay and the industry needs to find a way to make pari-mutuel wagering work for all. He suggested the industry put some of the tools in place available for the CRW teams—pool information and batch wagering for instance—to help level the playing field.

Marshall Gramm speaks at the Seventy-First Annual Round Table Conference on Matters Pertaining to Racing presented by The Jockey Club at the Saratoga City Center Thursday, Aug. 3, 2023 in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. The Jockey Club Photo
Photo: The Jockey Club
Marshall Gramm speaks at the Round Table

"This is not going away," Gramm said. "We need to find a way to make this work for every player."

In an effort that started two years ago, NYRA has made an effort to level the playing field. For win wagers it has required CRW players to wager early—a policy aimed at ending the wild odds swings in the closing seconds of wagering that often isn't completed until after the gates open. NYRA also has kept CRW teams out of certain wagers, such as its late Pick 5, a wager that, relative to projected win parlay, has returned significantly more than the early Pick 5 (where CRW teams are allowed).

Longo acknowledged that the win-bet policy has resulted in CRW teams moving on to other pools where they feel they have bigger advantages, but that migration hasn't impacted handle.

"We had a lot of complaints from customers and even people in the industry specific to the win pool itself and the late odds drops," Longo said. "We simply turned around and said look, 'We can't have the late odds drops any longer, the last-minute money into the pool.' 

"So we let the (CRW bettors) wager into the pool up until three minutes to post so that come two minutes (to post), they're not allowed in the pools any longer. And what you're seeing now is that because there is no (CRW) money effectively in the win pool at all, you are seeing payouts that when you're comparing them to the other pools, they are substantially higher."

With the CRW players gone from the win pools, it seems other players have noticed the potential value and increased their play.

"(In the win pool) the percentage of our handle prior to the restriction is the same exact number it is after the restriction," Longo said. "More retail people have moved in there. So it's been very positive up to this point and the end result has been a net decrease in the percentage of (CRW) in the pools."

Longo likened the restrictions on some pools that prohibit or discourage CRW wagering to a casino that offers different types of poker games, some games may be $2-$4 limit poker, others may be $5-$10 no-limit. It's an effort to bring back some players that have left in this era of CRW proliferation.

"Our middle market player—our player who's a weekend warrior who bets a significant amount of money—I've talked to many of them and they're betting a lot less," Longo said. "They're getting squeezed out as a result of the shark-eat-shark environment. And so it's a lot tougher. It's a lot tougher for all players." 

Also Wednesday a panel that included prominent trainers Jena Antonucci and Ron Moquett, as well as Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority CEO Lisa Lazarus and Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit executive director Ben Mosier discussed HISA, which on May 22 launched its oversight of the industry's anti-doping and medication control efforts.

Trainer Jena Antonucci speaks at the Seventy-First Annual Round Table Conference on Matters Pertaining to Racing presented by The Jockey Club at the Saratoga City Center Thursday, Aug. 3, 2023 in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. The Jockey Club Photo
Photo: The Jockey Club
(L-R): Ben Mosier, Jena Antonucci and Ron Moquett at the Seventy-First Annual Round Table

In that time HIWU, the enforcement arm for HISA, has alleged, in the form of public disclosures listed on the HIWU website, the use of banned substances against 19 trainers and one vet. One of those cases was resolved with trainer John T. Brown receiving an 18-month suspension. Another case, against trainer McLean Robertson, was dropped when a split sample didn't back up the initial findings.

(Allegations of banned substances call for provisional (immediate) suspensions, which is not the case for controlled medication cases.)

After the Robertson case, HISA tweaked its rules to hold off any provisional (immediate) suspension of the covered person until after any split sample result is reported. (This applies to most findings other than a few substances of the highest concern.)

Speaking with panel moderator Jim Gagliano, president and COO of The Jockey Club, Mosier noted that going forward the sport can expect more tweaks, which he said is typical in other sports as well.

"I had a lot of individuals from the human anti-doping community looking from the outside say that listening to what is happening with HISA now being applied across the nation is like deja vu because the World Anti-Doping Agency did the same thing with over 200 countries in 1999, and look at where they are now," Mosier said. "They, of course, had their bumps along the way but trying to unify that many countries in a way is very similar to what's going on now."

Mosier said such changes likely will continue as HISA attempts to oversee anti-doping and medication control in the sport while being fair to its participants. He said similar efforts, discussions, and changes occur in human sports as well.

"Every year you hear about the same things we're talking about now, ensuring that the regulators and the athletes are working together to continue to evolve the rules, to make sure that those rules apply realistically to each one of those sports," Mosier said. "I think that's what we're trying to achieve here as well."

Note: The Jockey Club is a majority owner of BloodHorse.