- FanDuel has become the first US sportsbook to offer sports betting and parimutuel horse race wagering from the same account.
- Users can stream live racing coverage from many tracks around the US.
- Previously, FanDuel customers who wanted to wager on horses had to have a separate account with FanDuel Racing or TVG.
FanDuel has announced that they’re now the first US facing sportsbook to offer single account wagering for sports and horses. Previously, players had to have separate accounts at FanDuel Racing or TVG to wager on the ponies. TVG is owned by FanDuel’s parent company Flutter PLC. Here’s the official announcement from a FanDuel press release:
FanDuel, the premier online gaming company in North America, announced that its customers can access both parimutuel wagering on horse racing and traditional sports book wagering with a single account after a successful soft launch last week. With this launch, FanDuel Sportsbook becomes the first US sportsbook to offer this feature. The measure is part of FanDuel’s ongoing investment in customer experience and its continuing commitment to introduce a new generation of audiences to horse racing.
Users will be able to wager on and stream racing coverage from FanDuel TV and other racing content for which FanDuel has wagering rights. In addition to live horse racing throughout the year from top tracks across the country, FanDuel Sportsbook customers will also be able to wager on the Kentucky Derby for the first time through the integrated platform in 2023.
Anyone with a modicum of knowledge about sports betting history knows that FanDuel’s claim to be the first US sportsbook to offer wagering on sports and horses is technically incorrect. This has been available at countless ‘local bookmakers’ for years. The same functionality is also available at the many excellent offshore sportsbooks serving the US market. If you want to get really nitpicky, you could make the case that this has also been available in Nevada for years assuming you’re playing with cash. Current Nevada regulations require separate accounts for mobile sports and horse wagering. And, no, you can’t seamlessly move money from one to another.
Here’s some more history–in the years prior to sportsbooks become an adjunct of casinos both horses and sports were offered at independent bookmakers like the Churchill Downs, Rose Bowl and Santa Anita (any resemblance to actual sporting venues is strictly coincidental, I’m sure). Until 1993, Nevada had a separate racing commission. Oversight for parimutuel sports is now the responsibility of the Nevada Gaming Commission. The only live racing in Nevada is a handful of dates at the White Pine Horse Races in the central Nevada town of Ely and at the Elko County Fair.
At one point, it was commonplace for Nevada residents to bet via a third party account wagering platform or even the tracks themselves. Like so many other components of Nevada’s sports/horse betting ecosystem, this was done away with to protect politicians’ financial benefactors at the expense of the bettors. Third parties are no longer able to serve Nevada bettors directly.
Horse racing is big business in the sportsbooks owned by Flutter PLC in the UK and Australia. FanDuel Group CEO Amy Howe alluded to this in her comment on the new ‘one account’ arrangement:
“Horse racing is a big part of our DNA. This is a significant opportunity to expose a broader, engaged audience to the sport in a familiar environment.”
The merged wallet/single account setup is available in quite a few states already, though most of them are the ones you’d have guessed: New York, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, West Virginia, Wyoming, Michigan, Colorado, and Virginia. FanDuel plans to expand it to additional states early next year.
Nice to see anything approximating progress in the US sports betting ecosystem, even if it is *very*
