The Breeders’ Cup holds a special place in the hearts of horseplayers, but the year-end championships of thoroughbred racing have always had to contend with challenging timing and significant competition in trying to win the affection of more casual sports bettors.
However, the work to get stick-and-ball bettors to warm up to horse racing continues, and the 2024 Breeders’ Cup may have the kind of allies and storylines that will help sell it to casuals and diehards alike.
“These are the best of the best,” noted Johnny Avello, director of race and sports operators for DraftKings, in an interview with Covers.
This year’s Breeders’ Cup World Championships will take place on Friday and Saturday at Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in Southern California.
The event will feature 14 “Grade 1” championship races with more than $34 million in purses and awards up for grabs, including $7 million for the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
“People talk about the Kentucky Derby,” said Andrew Moore, general manager of racing at FanDuel, in an interview with Covers earlier this week. “The Derby is great, but as a betting event for a horse-racing enthusiast, there's nothing that matches this.”
That's just like your opinion, man
The Breeders’ Cup indeed offers some unique opportunities for bettors. Each race is full of championship-caliber horses who may typically go off at short odds on any other day, but will have juicier prices at Del Mar because of the competition they face.
“You've got horses that have traditionally very short odds, but they'll have never raced against each other before,” Moore said. “So there's going to be very strong opinions.”
The Irish juggernaut City of Troy, for instance, was listed as a 5/2 favorite for the Breeders' Cup Classic, or +250.
Those odds will shift before the gates open on Saturday, but they would be much, much shorter already if the Classic wasn't a Breeders' Cup race.
“When you're betting longshots down there, they're usually live because they're good horses and they belong in that field,” Avello said. “But there has to be a favorite, and there have to be longshots. And so that's what makes this day so exciting, is that there is the potential to make a lot of money and hit some pretty big-priced horses.”
Real horse knowers
Still, because of its place on the calendar, horse racing’s "best of the best" must fight for eyeballs and wagering dollars with the NBA, college football, and, depending on how the next few days go, MLB.
Moreover, while the NFL isn’t playing this Friday or Saturday, it commands the attention of bettors almost every day of the week, including during the Breeders' Cup.
“It is more of a core horseplayers’ event overall, because it's just hard for horse racing to make a big splash this time of year with the amount of sporting events to compete with,” Moore said.
Even so, FanDuel and its competitors at DraftKings are on a mission to try to get more stick-and-ball bettors into horse racing. The investment in that side of the business will continue with this year’s Breeders’ Cup.
“That's already taking place,” Avello said of the cross-selling. “I think it'll take place more so down the road, when we integrate everything into the DraftKings app. We've done a good job so far getting the word out to our sports players, our casino players, our fantasy players that we have this product. And, so far, it’s been very successful.”
Making it official
FanDuel says it is seeing similar successes. The operator reported more than 550,000 customers bet on horse racing via FanDuel Sportsbook during the 2024 Triple Crown season, and that handle and active users over that period were up 10% and 15%, respectively, compared to 2023.
When it comes to the Breeders' Cup, FanDuel might have the inside track.
The Flutter Entertainment PLC-owned FanDuel and TVG have been official wagering partners of the event since 2019. There's even a “WAGER” button on the Breeders' Cup website that will direct users to TVG or FanDuel Racing.
FanDuel will also be the namesake sponsor of two Breeders' Cup races this week, the Juvenile on Friday and the turf mile on Saturday.
The bookmaker has made the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance and the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund its co-title sponsors of the two races as well. That's in addition to making $100,000 donations to both organizations.
“We bring more customers to horse racing than anyone,” Moore said. “We're the only people who have a network on year-round showing horse racing. We've got a significant role to play in the sport and … we have a role to play in supporting these causes.”
THORPEDO ANNA galloped on at @DelMarRacing this morning. The heavy favorite for the @BreedersCup Distaff is looking fantastic! pic.twitter.com/M57VVyblsf
— FanDuel Racing (@FanDuel_Racing) October 30, 2024
Moore called the partnership with the Breeders’ Cup overall “very mutually rewarding,” as there are opportunities for betting and bettors, as well as on the media side of the business.
FanDuel TV plans to broadcast a "live, wagering-focused" program on Friday and Saturday that will air every Breeders' Cup race but the Classic.
FanDuel's television arm and the company’s social media operations have also been spending time in the run-up to the Breeders’ Cup promoting the event and highlighting certain storylines.
For example, some of the horses running this weekend will pop up again next year in Triple Crown races as contenders and favorites to win the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes.
Also running in Saturday's Distaff will be Thorpedo Anna, a filly that came within a neck of beating a field of colts at the Grade 1 Travers Stakes in August at Saratoga.
FanDuel TV has been trying to convey these sorts of characters and storylines to its audience. The network has been running three-hour breakfast shows for the Breeders' Cup and airing features on some of the international entries that were filmed overseas, including a workout by City of Troy.
Aidan O'Brien's Army of entries is out on the track. Check out the awesome CITY OF TROY jackets @FanDuelTVMike! pic.twitter.com/vbUpoT0G8t
— FanDuel Racing (@FanDuel_Racing) October 30, 2024
City of Troy has won six of his seven races overseas. And the horse's participation in the Breeders' Cup Classic is indeed a huge storyline, as he has never raced in the U.S., or on dirt, and is scheduled to do both as the morning-line favorite on Saturday against a field of impressive rivals.
“It's just really about bringing this world championship to life,” Moore said. “It's really great, because when you get to partner with the world championships of anything, and you have a TV network that can elevate it, and a wagering platform we both mutually benefit from, because obviously they get host fees from the wagering, there's a lot of moving parts that work well.”
Betting, of course, is one of the cornerstones of the Breeders’ Cup. Moore said the handle for the event is typically on the level of a Belmont or Preakness, although not quite what comes in on the Kentucky Derby.
Wagering on the 2023 Breeders’ Cup totaled roughly $176.3 million, down from the record-setting $189.1 million in 2022. To compare, handle for this year’s Kentucky Derby (and just that race alone) was $210.7 million, a new record itself.
Time will tell if this year’s Breeders’ Cup can set new all-time highs. But, as Moore noted, the Breeders' Cup marquee race is now in the middle of the Saturday card, rather than the end, to better accommodate broadcasters, namely NBC.
“It'll be interesting to see if that affects handle either way,” Moore said. “Overall, net-net, I think similar to last year would be a good result, but there’s certainly upside.”
Second time around
Some of that upside could come from the newer options for wagering that have opened up in recent years. One is FanDuel Racing, which launched in 2020 and complements Flutter’s other online horse racing platform, TVG.
In the Canadian province of Ontario, where there is a competitive market for online gambling, bettors can use Woodbine Entertainment Group's HPIbet and Dark Horse Bets. And, as of last year, Ontarians can again wager on horse racing using bet365.
With the help of Churchill Downs Inc.’s TwinSpires, DraftKings now has its DK Horse app live in 20 states. The operator is already working to drive additional Breeders’ Cup-related action to its online racebook, which launched in March 2023.
Like FanDuel, DraftKings has been sponsoring various horse races, such as the Travers. Both companies are also offering sign-up bonuses and promotions for new customers in the U.S.
DraftKings plans to run a free-to-play pool contest as well for the Breeders’ Cup, wherein users get points for picking horses who finish first, second, and third. Those with the most points will share $2,500 in prize money.
“We certainly know more than we knew for the first Breeders’ Cup,” Avello said. “We have more customers now, so it's an exciting time. It's one of the biggest days in racing, if not the biggest.”
