CDI: Big Fish Analytics Help TwinSpires.com

The diversification of racetrack and gaming company Churchill Downs Inc. not only has improved the company's bottom line, it also has provided some expertise from one segment to another.

In a Feb. 25 conference call with investors and analysts, CDI executives said expertise from its free, social gaming casino company Big Fish Games has benefitted its advance deposit wagering platform, TwinSpires.com.

On Feb. 24 CDI reported TwinSpires.com registered a 7.5% pari-mutuel handle increase in 2015 as the ADW enjoyed a 5.2% increase in net revenue to $200.2 million and a 13.7% increase in adjusted earnings to $51.5 million.

During the conference call, CDI officials said TwinSpires.com already has benefitted from some expertise from the Big Fish side and, in terms of analytics and marketing, more crossover is expected. CDI acquired Big Fish Games in December 2014, and the social casino gaming operation had adjusted earnings of $108 million for CDI in 2015.

"A lot of the analytics, and processes around analytics and marketing spend, really are very similar between Big Fish and TwinSpires," CDI chief executive officer Bill Carstanjen said. "So a lot of the testing and a lot of the measuring use similar sets of processes. So that's something we've asked the Big Fish folks to really assist with, and they have been. It will improve the business by allowing us to leverage our spend better.

"There's also a lot of potential opportunity to leverage marketing resources across the organizations. But of course real-money gaming is different than social games. So we'll have to take our time and make sure we understand where there are opportunities to leverage the different groups."

Carstanjen said there has not been much crossover in terms of content to this point and he's not sure there will be.

"Maybe over time there'll be a blurring of real-money gaming and social gaming but there isn't right now. They're very different things," Carstanjen said. "Real-money gaming, which is what you have with horse racing, is a very regulated business. We think sometimes about adding additional non-real-money gaming to the TwinSpires platform, and that's something we'll explore over time.

"But right now Big Fish designs games and builds games; whereas TwinSpires takes wagers on existing products: real, existing events that are happening—horse races. So over time, maybe you'll see some crossover, but right now they're pretty separate and distinct businesses when it comes to, 'What do you sell to the customer?' "