NYRA, Fox Sports Form a Winning Television Entry

In a generation that has grown up with the ability to hold the world in their hand through a cell phone, there is still a place for an old-fashioned way of reaching people, especially in sports.

Television has indeed proven to be a savior for entities ranging from football to poker, and in New York, it has also been the driving force behind the superlative growth of an Advance Deposit Wagering system belonging to horse racing's biggest circuit.

Launched nationally in 2016 and branded NYRA Bets, the New York Racing Association's ADW handled a meager $7,245,337.40 outside the Empire State in its first year. This year, there are expectations the wagering unit will handle more than $100 million beyond the borders of New York state.

The reason for a jump that would leave Michael Jordan envious?

Television. Lots of it.

"I can't think of any sport that has ever been hurt by television," said Tony Allevato, president of NYRA Bets and executive director of television. "People are going over the top with streaming, but they are still turning to television for news and sports."

Increased national television exposure and NYRA Bets have proven to be New York racing's best coupled entry since Secretariat and Riva Ridge ran together in the 1973 Marlboro Cup.

What started on Fox Sports 2 in 2016 as an unprecedented 80 hours of live national programming produced by a single racing organization, mostly geared around Saratoga Race Course, has now expanded to 500 hours at NYRA's three tracks, with Allevato predicting there will probably be 700 hours on national Fox networks in 2020 through NYRA's Saratoga Live, America's Day at the Races and Fox Sports Saturday at the Races shows. 

The long-term goal is to show every race at Belmont Park and Saratoga on national television.

"Fox has made a giant commitment to horse racing when you look at the sheer amount of hours they are showing horse racing, and it's beneficial to us and the sport," Allevato said. "We've gone from zero to 60 in an amazingly short amount of time."

Ditto for NYRA Bets' national handle from approximately 30 states.

After handling $7.2 million in 2016, the figure rose like Jack's beanstalk to $45,679,706.30 in 2017 and then $81,628.278,70 in 2018, numbers underscored by figures showing that NYRA handles more money on races it televises. 

"NYRA Bets was a late entrant into the national ADW market. We started five years behind everyone else, and it would have been impossible for us to make any kind of impact nationally without these shows. I feel very strongly about that. For us to get our message out about our ADW, the television show played a critical role," Allevato said. "In all ADW numbers we see an increase when we are televising a race. We have seen an uptick of just over 14% in the wagering, which is great."

Viewership also went up, according to Allevato.

"The Nielsen ratings have improved by 50% since last year for the Fox Sports Saturday shows," he said. "We had 10 shows in February and March that were watched by an aggregate 1.4 million people."

As beneficial as the television shows have been for NYRA, there would not be an ever-increasing amount of air time without a highly satisfied network. In this case, Fox Sports has been delighted with the quality of the shows and the response to them.

"The quality of the on-air product gets better every year, and the talent gets better. The handle we see driven to NYRA Bets is very encouraging," said Michael Mulvihill, executive vice president and head of strategy for Fox Sports. "It's one of those rare circumstances where I'm less focused on Nielsen figures and viewership figures and I focus more on handle figures. The handle figures have been great and give us a lot of optimism heading into Saratoga. I think we are going to have a great summer."

Reflective of how the Fox-NYRA partnership has been, the $1.25 million Runhappy Travers Stakes (G1) will be presented on Fox's broadcast channel Aug. 24, marking the first time a major race has been presented on the network's flagship channel since the turn of the century.

In addition, the $1 million Saratoga Derby Invitational will air on Fox Sports 1 during a one-hour program Aug. 4. Both shows will feature NYRA's on-air talent.

"When we do the Travers on the big network, you will see a group of talent that will not be out of place on a Triple Crown day or a Breeders' Cup day. That's high praise, because NBC has a phenomenal collection of talent and I feel ours is right with them," Mulvihill said.

The roots of NYRA's emergence on television were planted by David O'Rourke, now NYRA's president and CEO. While working as the company's vice president and chief revenue officer, he saw the need for television coverage to complement NYRA's simulcast shows as well as a high-definition presentation, and he began what has proven to be a multi-million-dollar investment that built the infrastructure, which set the stage for growth in future years.

"We had begun to invest in HD infrastructure, but the paradox was that there was nowhere to distribute it. At the time we were only taking bets in New York, so the question became, how do you grow it and how do we put ourselves in position to expand our handle, which had been flat and declining as an industry," O'Rourke said. 

Enter Allevato. O'Rourke played a central role in the 2015 hiring of Allevato, who was working for the NFL Network at the time but had a 14-year association with TVG, the cable network devoted to horse racing, where he had been executive vice president for television.

At the time, NYRA was producing replay shows with regional cable networks such as MSG, but Allevato saw a future in live programming, and a pilot show was produced covering the 2015 Cigar Mile (G1).

The concept resonated with Mulvihill, who saw it as a means of adding live programming for the fledgling FS2 network.

"When I first pitched the idea at Fox Sports, the response was favorable. The economics of the deal included so little risk for us, and it allowed us to add a significant number of live programming hours to FS2. We are a live event business. That's what we are first, last, and always. So to be able to add the best meet in the country in Saratoga and add all of this live content and not take on much financial risk at all was pretty attractive," Mulvihill said. "The relationship has evolved, and now with states on the path to adding sports wagering, here's a way to bring all of these elements together in a way that should benefit horse racing and allow us to be the leader moving into sports wagering opportunities. That wasn't the original intent, but now we feel there's a reason to continue the partnership with NYRA and see what we can do with it in the future."

Since its debut, the show's production staff has risen to about 55.

"People see the talent in front of the camera and the content we have, but the unsung heroes are the men and women in the production truck. They are doing essentially what network people do in the same type of setting," Allevato said. "From the producers to graphic directors, they are the ones who pull it off. For a racetrack to do what a network does on a daily basis is an amazing feat, and they deserve a lot of credit."

The roster of on-air talent has also doubled.

The current list of personalities includes handicappers/analysts Andy Serling, Paul Lo Duca, and Jonathon Kinchen, hosts Greg Wolf and Laffit Pincay Jr., former jockeys Richard Migliore and Gary Stevens, trainer Tom Amoss, and paddock analyst Maggie Wolfendale, who combine to present race coverage and feature stories.

"The team we have in place makes it successful. Having former jockeys like Richard Migliore and Gary Stevens brings a great perspective. We have great handicappers like Andy Serling, Paul Lo Duca, and Jonathon Kinchen, and we present a broad picture. While we focus on the wagering, we do cover the human-interest stories, which I love doing, like features about the work (trainer) Rick Schosberg and (former jockey) Rosie Napravnik do with retired horses," Wolfendale said. "I'm not surprised by what happened. It's a welcomed success. Tony has been so ambitious and willing to take chances. Having him behind us has catapulted to getting so much time on networks like FS2."

While other racetracks rely on TVG for coverage, NYRA's shows on Fox Sports and various regional networks allows it to not only promote its ADW but also to deliver the messages that it feels are important to its customers and horsemen. For instance, Allevato stresses interviews with owners as a means of enhancing the potentially costly experience of owning a racehorse.

"When we look at the issues like foal shortage, we also believe there's an owner shortage. And one of our mission statements from Dave O'Rourke was to help improve the experience for owners and make it better for them. We make sure we interview at least one owner a day. We want to add to that experience of coming to the races and watching your horses, and owners seem to respond to it," Allevato said. "Even the small owners are important. They might want to be the big owners of tomorrow, and we want to make them feel special. Hopefully, by seeing their stories on television, it could create new owners."

Enhanced technology has also enhanced the shows' content. Eric Donovan, NYRA's director of TV and broadcast operations, explains that by using LiveU, a portable video unit that allows uplinks via wireless cellar networks, the NYRA shows can feature coverage of races at other racetracks, such as Oaklawn Park and the races from Churchill Downs now being aired on America's Day at the Races from Belmont Park, often with Stevens on hand in Louisville.

"The new technology is amazing. I've known Tony for close to three decades. He's a great friend and great boss. It's a great production team. It's first class. It's a privilege to work for them," said Stevens, the Hall of Fame rider who will be based in Saratoga throughout the upcoming meet. "I'm really enjoying it. It's fun for me. I get paid to talk about what I would be talking about anyway, and NYRA has treated me like a golden child. It's great working with them. I've had a lot of fun, and when you have fun, it doesn't get better than that. It's the next best thing for me to riding races."

Sponsorship has also played a key part in the show's expansion. Claiborne Farm and Runhappy were the first to support the programs.

"Claiborne and Runhappy were there at the beginning and bought in to help racing," Allevato said.

More recently, America's Best Racing, a multi-media fan development and awareness-building platform initiated by The Jockey Club, joined the fold, providing financial backing and content.

"Television has always played a crucial role in the representation of the sport, stars, and icons and, even in this modern digital-social era, continues to do so. Simply stated, televised live sports remains a highly attractive, compelling option for audiences young and old," said Stephen Panus, president of TJC Media Ventures/America's Best Racing. "Moreover, the best way for a corporate sponsor to reach the largest possible audience remains on broadcast television. The Jockey Club's support of the expansion of horse racing on television via America's Best Racing's sponsorship of NYRA and Fox Sports' year-round coverage from Belmont Park and Saratoga Race Course is consistent with the recommendations from the most recent McKinsey & Company report to grow awareness in the sport."

Without question, the shows have achieved that ideal of creating visibility for racing and NYRA, and it has all happened because of a still reliable force in the communications industry.

"It doesn't matter if it's the Travers or a national championship game, we feel there's no substitute for the reach and immediacy and reliability of broadcast television," Mulvihill said. "There's a lot of talk about new ways of consuming content and following sports, but I don't think there's anything that can compete with the reach of television."