U.K. Firm Bets on U.S. Track
Bookmaker Invests to Bring Simulated Wagers to Monmouth Park in New Jersey
By HEATHER HADDON
Britain's largest bookmaker is investing $1 million to bring a simulated form of sports betting to a New Jersey horse-racing track, a sign that gambling interests believe Gov. Chris Christie's push to legalize wagering on athletics will eventually succeed.Sports betting is legal in only a handful of states, and a New Jersey referendum that allows it is being blocked by professional sports leagues in a lawsuit.
Equi-Photo/Associated Press
Sports betting is currently illegal in New Jersey. Here, a race at the Monmouth Park track in June 2012.
In free play, no money changes hands, but clients who choose winning sports teams or players can get prizes and perks, such as concert tickets, electronics and meals.
The promotion would allow William Hill to begin building a base of athletics fans in New Jersey that it could tap if sports betting is legalized in the state. The firm intends to make a significant investment in building a Las Vegas-style sports-betting facility at the park if wagering on athletics is allowed, said Joe Asher, chief executive of William Hill U.S.
"One day sports betting will be legal in New Jersey, and when it is, we'll be there," he said in an interview.
Free play typically refers to casinos' practice of offering bonus rounds on slot machines as a promotion. Under New Jersey law, free-play games are permitted as long as participants aren't charged. Monmouth Park participants will pay the facility's regular entrance cost, but no other fee, said Dennis Drazin, chairman of Monmouth Park. The New Jersey Sports and Exhibition Authority approved the offering on Friday as the landlord for the park, said Ralph Marra, the authority's general counsel.
"It's establishing a framework for sports betting in the state," said Angelo Genova, a partner at Genova Burns Giantomasi & Webster, a Newark law firm representing Monmouth Park racetrack. "It's cutting edge."
Park officials are expected to formally announce the new free-play offering during a news conference Tuesday kicking off the racing season.
New Jersey facilities don't permit slot machines as tracks in neighboring states do, and attendance at horse races has declined. Monmouth Park regularly attracted 40,000 fans decades ago, but it is now down to 10,000 a day on average during the season, Mr. Drazin said.
Mr. Drazin said sports betting is one way to boost attendance, and the state Thoroughbred Horsemen Association has filed briefs in support of the Christie administration's effort to overturn a 21-year-old federal ban on wagering on athletics in most states.
The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 allows sports betting in Nevada and more limited forms of wagering in three other states.
Last year, New Jersey passed a law permitting sports betting at the 12 Atlantic City casinos and four horse-racing tracks, prompting the National Collegiate Athletic Association and four professional sports leagues to sue.
A federal judge in New Jersey upheld the ban in February, writing that it was up to Congress to decide whether sports betting could be expanded. The case is now before the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
While the case is adjudicated, Monmouth Park hopes that offering the free-play form of sports betting will begin to attract new patrons.
William Hill intends to turn an old cafeteria into a suite and to let patrons guess the outcome of various athletic contests, including the Super Bowl and National Collegiate Athletic Association tournaments. Participants would use spreads to make their choices and be able to accumulate points throughout the sporting season, according to Mr. Drazin.
"I think it's innovative," said Mr. Drazin, who added that he knew of no other racetrack in the country that was offering free-play contests on sports.
In return for William Hill's investment, Monmouth Park will provide a sponsorship deal and naming rights for its biggest race for two years. The park's Haskell Invitational Stakes is a significant national race with a purse of $1 million.
Israel Posner, executive director of the Lloyd D. Levenson Institute of Gaming, Hospitality and Tourism at Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, said he had never heard of a free-play concept for sports betting at race tracks.
The simulated sports betting would be part of a larger push by the racetracks to attract younger patrons, Mr. Posner added. "They are becoming more multi-amenity attractions, rather than just people watching horses run around the track," he said.
Write to Heather Haddon at heather.haddon@wsj.com
A version of this article appeared May 7,
2013, on page B2 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with
the headline: U.K. Firm Bets on U.S. Track.
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