TORONTO — Ontario sports bettors will be able to place online wagers on the $1-million King's Plate.
Woodbine Entertainment has reached an agreement with bet365 to make horse racing available to Ontario sports bettors through the online betting company's platform. The deal means sports punters will be able to wager on the King's Plate, the opening jewel of the OLG Canadian Triple Crown that goes Sunday at Woodbine Racetrack.
Jim Lawson, the outgoing CEO of Woodbine Entertainment, made the announcement Wednesday during the Plate draw at Woodbine.
"The good news is Woodbine is effectively a non-profit corporation, we put all of our revenue back into horse racing so this is a great thing for the industry in terms of potential revenue," Lawson said. "More than that, you could see the sports-betting world just growing and growing.
"It's currently $4 billion in Ontario, it's expected to grow as high as $10 billion. This is our business, we cannot be left out of that growth sector."
Ontario became the first Canadian province to launch an open, regulated igaming market in April 2022. In June, iGaming Ontario (iGO) reported the market generated total gaming revenues of just over $1.48 billion in its first full year of operation.
Last month, iGO issued a report for the first full quarter of the 2023-24 fiscal year (April 1-June 30). It revealed a record total gaming revenue of $545 million, compared to $162 million over the same period last year.
The $545 million is also up from the $526 million in total revenue generated in the final quarter of 2022.
iGO is a subsidiary of the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO). It conducts and manages internet gaming in the province.
Last month's report also stated total sports-betting wagers for the first three months of 2023 totalled $2 billion, with gaming revenues of $138 million.
Under terms of the deal, Woodbine will integrate its parimutuel racing product into bet365’s licensed Ontario sports book platform. All racing offered on Woodbine's HPIbet betting platform will now be available to bet365’s provincial customers.
The actual dollars wagered through bet365 will be considered home market area handle, which contributes to Ontario's Horse Improvement Programs, including race purses.
Woodbine wanted its HPIbet to become integrated into Ontario’s online sportsbooks. It engaged in conversations with the Canadian parimutuel Agency (CPMA), federal and provincial governments as well as major sports-betting entities regarding how to merge the horse-racing betting platform with operators.
"Yes, it's a great relief," Lawsons said. "Although it's been a long process, the federal and provincial governments, CPMA, Attorney General's office, iGO and the AGCO have all been supportive … I understand we had to go through all of the appropriate channels.
"I won't say there's difficult legal concepts but certainly fresh, new legal concepts because you're talking about new legislation, something very novel that's never occurred before."
Woodbine's deal with bet365 isn't an exclusive one. Lawson, who'll step down from his CEO post in October, said the goal is to get horse racing on other platforms as soon as possible.
"I very much expect that with this announcement we're going to hear from all of the major sports-betting operators asking how they can get our content as an additional offering on their platform," Lawson said. "And that's what's in it for them, they'll get an additional offering.
"About eight per cent worldwide of most sports betting operators is on horse racing."
Lawson said the reason Woodbine partnered first with bet365 is a simple one.
"Bet365 was technologically very advanced," he said. "Their origins were in horse racing, they have a big brand and it was a great fit with our intention to expose as many people out there to horse racing.
"They have a big platform and were willing to work with us. But it still took almost a year to work through the kinks in the technology to put that parimutuel system on to the back end of the platform."
And with that done, Lawson is optimistic the deal with bet365 will pave the way for other operators to add horse racing to their menu.
"We're going to be in a great position to move forward with as many other major sports-betting operators as possible," he said. "I say major because those will be the ones that have the ability and know-how to integrate our technology like bet365 did."
And Lawson's vision exceeds Ontario.
"I'm also hoping and planning that we'll be able to move this across the country," he said. "For example, the B.C. Lottery Corporation does sports betting but I'm sure they'll be interested in offering horse racing as part of their gaming offerings.
"You could see it in Manitoba, you could see it in Quebec, you could see it across the country. You could see how it could grow across Canada. It would be great for horse racing."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 16, 2023.
Dan Ralph, The Canadian Press