Churchill Plans no Fixed-Odds Derby Wagering This Year

Churchill Downs Inc.'s entrance into sports wagering under its BetAmerica brand will not mean Churchill-sanctioned, fixed-odds wagering on this year's Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve—and whether it ever will is an open question.

"It's down the road, if it gets there," said Mike Ziegler, the Louisville-based company's executive director of racing.

A U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2018 opened the doors to sports gambling—but on a state-by-state basis.

Churchill has been among the early entrants into the business using the BetAmerica brand, which will offer bricks and mortar locations as well as online and mobile. The states where it operates or is planning to conduct sports betting are at its Mississippi casinos, online in New Jersey, and through its recently acquired Presque Isle Downs in Pennsylvania.

But those operations won't take bets on the Derby outside of traditional pari-mutuel wagering. So the only authorized wagers on the Derby are pari-mutuel, according to the company.

Multiple factors surrounding any sports wagering on the Derby would have to be addressed, Ziegler said, including how offering sports wagering—offered as fixed odds instead of pari-mutuel—on the Derby could fit in the federal law that allows interstate simulcasting on horse racing. Regarding pari-mutuel simulcasts, the Interstate Horseracing Act requires such wagering to be legal in the states involved as well as approvals of horsemen's groups and racetracks.

BetAmerica's online sports wagering efforts include an app that company CEO Bill Carstanjen told investors last week that has been approved by Apple.

"We're also still completing our full list of payment and casino game vendors, which we think will give us a compelling IGaming product," Carstanjen said.