The New York Racing Association wants a world where horses and hockey, ponies and pigskin, are available for wagering alongside each other using the state's online sportsbooks.
- NYRA supports allowing fixed-odds horse-race betting on mobile sportsbooks, arguing it could add nearly $30 million in tax revenue.
- The change could give horse racing access to New York’s huge online sports betting audience at a time when the horse racing industry faces significant financial challenges.
- Despite enthusiasm from some in the industry, fixed-odds legislation in the New York legislature has stalled.
Representatives of NYRA, a not-for-profit corporation that operates three thoroughbred racetracks and owns the NYRA Bets mobile wagering platform, appeared before a state Assembly committee last Friday.
During their testimony, an NYRA official voiced support for allowing fixed-odds betting on horse racing via New York’s online sports betting sites.
Doing so, they said, could generate almost $30 million in additional tax revenue and garner more interest for a sport that is facing its fair share of challenges.
“We see this as an opportunity to drive new revenue to our industry, to the state, and down to the shareholders and stakeholders, which are horsemen, breeders, and owners,” said Jeffrey Cannizzo, vice president of government affairs for NYRA, during Friday’s hearing on New York’s horse racing sector.
There is legislation in the New York State Senate that could make fixed-odds wagering on horse racing via mobile sportsbooks possible: Democratic Sen. Joseph P. Addabbo Jr.’s S8433. However, the bill has not moved much since its introduction this summer.
Nevertheless, NYRA is enthusiastic about the idea of New York sports betting including fixed-odds wagering on the sport of kings.
Eclipse Award-winning rider Flavien Prat earned five victories – including a sweep of the day’s two stakes races – on Sunday’s nine-race card at Aqueduct Racetrack, giving him 14 wins altogether this week at the Ozone Park oval ⤵️https://t.co/J7D2nABWFB
— NYRA (🗽) (@TheNYRA) November 23, 2025
Such wagering would grant horse racing access to New York’s massive population of sports bettors on platforms those players regularly use.
More than half a billion dollars has been bet with New York's mobile sportsbooks (using fixed odds) every week this fall, including $565 million for the week that ended Nov. 16.
To compare, approximately $868 million was wagered on thoroughbred horse racing in the U.S. in all of October, according to Equibase.
Put differently, New York’s online sportsbooks are seeing more wagering in two weeks than the entirety of U.S. thoroughbred horse racing is in an entire month. And while NYRA has partnerships with sportsbook operators, such as Caesars, those operators can’t take bets on horse racing on those sports betting platforms in New York, much less fixed-odds bets.
“New York is actually a leader in mobile sports wagering,” Cannizzo said Friday. “We see this as a huge opportunity to provide them our content on their platforms.”
The opportunity could help offset some of the expenses that continue to make horse racing, and horse racing in New York, a serious challenge for those involved in the industry.
Addabbo's bill would allow mobile sports wagering operators to accept a fixed-odds wager on a horse race if they first enter into an agreement with an entity like NYRA. The legislation would also ensure that any payments made by online sportsbook operators pursuant to those agreements would be allocated to the state's thoroughbred and harness racing industries.
In theory, then, there could be additional tax revenue for New York because of the extra handle and gaming revenue generated by fixed-odds wagering with online sportsbooks. There could also be revenue for the horse racing industry that comes from the payments made by sportsbook operators for the rights to offer fixed-odds wagering.
Bluegrass blues
At any rate, the nearly four-hour hearing Friday in Albany gave the horse racing industry an opening to raise their concerns, such as the cost of doing business in New York compared to Kentucky.
Andrew Offerman, senior vice president of racing operations for NYRA, told lawmakers that the amount of prize money New York offers for horse racing has remained “relatively flat” from 2016-2024. Meanwhile, Kentucky’s prize money has grown to the point where it’s now around 20% more than what the Empire State offers.
This, Offerman said, is largely because Kentucky has authorized historic horse racing, slot machine-like games that generate revenue for the industry.
“HHR implementation “has dramatically changed (Kentucky’s) purse structure and put incredible competitive pressure on New York's horsemen (and) our racetracks to continue to generate quality racing that competes with Kentucky,” Offerman said.
The threat to the competitiveness of New York horse racing presents risks to its significant economic benefits for the state.
Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner, chair of the chamber’s Standing Committee on Racing and Wagering, pointed to a 2023 study that found horse racing generated $7 billion in economic impact and supported more than 52,300 jobs across the state.
“Despite these strong foundations, the industry faces significant challenges,” said Woerner, whose district includes the NYRA-operated Saratoga Race Course. “Cost pressures in terms of training, labor, operations, and regulatory compliance are high, and competition from other forms of gaming and entertainment is increasing.”
Fixed-odds wagering on horse racing via mobile sports betting apps could help with some of those challenges. Still, the lack of momentum for fixed-odds legislation in the New York legislature suggests it could be some time coming, if it ever happens at all.
If you want to know what former NFL QB Jake Delhomme is up to, the answer is winning horse races and testifying (successfully!) in support of fixed-odds wagering in Louisiana:
— Geoff Zochodne (@GeoffZochodne) May 27, 2025
With Sports Betting in Mind, Fixed-Odds Horse Racing Gains Momentumhttps://t.co/OybJK3qcm6 @Covers
Furthermore, only four states have legalized fixed-odds wagering on horse racing, including New York’s neighbor, New Jersey. Implementation and adoption have been slow, and it’s unclear how stick-and-ball sports bettors will respond.
The vast majority of betting on horse racing in the U.S. is done using the pari-mutuel model (such as via NYRA Bets), where wagers are pooled together and then odds are determined and winnings distributed out of those pools.
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What are the odds?
While pari-mutuel wagering has worked for the industry, as the “takeout” ensures a cut for participants, the growing population of stick-and-ball bettors are more accustomed to fixed odds.
Longtime horseplayers are also growing increasingly irritated with significant shifts in the odds they get via pari-mutuel betting, with the blame largely laid at the feet of computer-assisted wagering groups. The CAW issue was also discussed during Friday’s hearing.
“Their ability to flood pools at scale, combined with the rebates that can return up to half the takeout, gives them an advantage that traditional horseplayers simply cannot match and creates odds movements that are often not visible until after final bets are made,” said Marshall Gramm, a horseplayer, horse owner, and Rhodes College economics professor.
With all that said, at least some members of the horse racing industry see stick-and-ball sports bettors as a crowd worth wooing.
Partnerships like the one NYRA has with Caesars, which even allows for users in a few states to toggle between the operator’s online sportsbook and racebook, are part of that effort.
“The more people we get horse racing in front of, the better it is for all of us,” Cannizzo said.
