NYRA and FanDuel Resolve Contract Dispute in Horse Racing
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00:00Let's begin.
00:03We have a dispute with horse racing and a contract being solved.
00:07Tell us more about the story.
00:09I don't want to ruin it for everybody.
00:11Yeah, this was actually pretty interesting over the last week or so.
00:16Uh, sort of, you know, two industry titans, if you will, in, in the horse
00:21bedding world, uh, kind of going head to head and digging their heels in.
00:26So if we rewind a little bit to, uh, the 4th of July, actually, Naira, the
00:32New York Racing Association put out a statement saying that they were no
00:36longer going to be providing their racing content, their races, or the
00:42ability to watch or wager on them through any of the FanDuel properties.
00:47So that would mean the FanDuel sports book, the FanDuel racing app, and
00:52FanDuel's horse bedding app, TVG.
00:55So they pulled that signal on, uh, Thursday morning, last week.
01:01And, you know, it kind of was interesting to me that, that the two
01:06sides couldn't agree to, to a contract on, you know, over the cost of that.
01:11So what it boiled down to really was, um, Naira wanted a extra share of all
01:19handle from New York residents playing through FanDuel properties.
01:24And there already is a 5% source market fee that FanDuel has to
01:30pay on wagers placed in New York.
01:33Naira wanted an additional percentage tacked on top of that because that
01:39original 5% tax goes straight to the state and doesn't always necessarily
01:44make its way back to Naira, let alone the, uh, the horse racing industry.
01:49So a little bit of a, of a face-off between Naira and FanDuel, both seemingly
01:56thinking they had a bit of leverage.
01:58Naira, of course, is the most popular horse racing signal in the country.
02:03FanDuel, like we've talked about, Craig, just brought in, uh, close to a
02:08million new customers throughout the Triple Crown season.
02:12So during that first weekend of racing over the holiday, uh, about a week
02:16and a half ago, Naira did experience a significant decline in handle.
02:21They tried to explain it away as just a, a lack of, of horses, uh, running.
02:26There is, uh, you know, less than 70 horses that ran on that Saturday
02:31cart over the holiday, uh, this year compared to over a hundred last year.
02:35So Naira said that was in large part due to the, the, the decline was in large
02:41part due to the limited number of horses.
02:44FanDuel, they said that they didn't really experience all that big
02:48of a dip in overall handle.
02:50The handle that would be going on Naira races just kind of got spread around
02:53to some other tracks that they were covering across the country.
02:57Now, of course, the most popular summer racing meet just kicked off
03:01yesterday up here in Saratoga.
03:03And wouldn't you know it, the two sides came to an agreement, uh,
03:07just hours before first post.
03:10Seemed like the, uh, somebody blinked, uh, towards the, the lead up to first
03:15post yesterday, and they came to an agreement FanDuel making a big donation
03:20to the Naira foundation, which, uh, helps support nonprofit businesses
03:24tied to the thoroughbred industry, as well as some backstretch, uh, initiatives
03:28for those workers on the backstretch.
03:30So the two sides coming to an agreement, you know, essentially in the 11th hour
03:33before first post yesterday of the popular Saratoga meet, so, uh, a little
03:38bit of a crisis averted, if you will, but still, you know, two industry, uh,
03:44titans, like I said, kind of going at it and, uh, negotiating a little bit
03:49of a content deal, uh, in the lead up to, you know, the popular summer racing season.