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Wagering on Kentucky Derby dips as some bettors get shut out
By Matt Hegarty

Betting on the Kentucky Derby this year was down 9.7 percent from last year, according to charts of the races, in no small measure because of a complete meltdown of the online wagering site of one of the country’s largest account-wagering companies one hour prior to the Derby, preventing thousands of the company’s customers from getting their bets down.

Betting on the 20-horse Derby this year, won by the 2.30-1 favorite, Nyquist, was $123.3 million, down from record betting of $136.5 million last year, according to charts of the races, a disappointing total considering that wagering, aided by an extra race on the card, was running at a record pace prior to the Derby. Last year’s Derby had only 18 horses.

The account-wagering site that went down, operated by Television Games Network, is one of the two market-leading account-wagering companies in the U.S., along with twinspires.com, owned by Churchill Downs Inc. At 5:30 p.m. Eastern, roughly one hour prior to the Derby’s scheduled post time, the company “experienced system degradation,” according to the company’s general counsel, John Hindman, and the system had not been restored by the time the Derby went off at 6:51, 17 minutes past the scheduled post.

“We are still evaluating what happened as part of working to provide a better customer experience in the future,” Hindman said in an e-mailed response to questions after the Churchill card had concluded. Hindman did not provide an estimate for how many wagers may have been affected based on past Derby betting through the site.

Later on Saturday night, TVG e-mailed a statement to its customers apologizing for the system crash. The statement said that the crash was caused by “human error” when the company ran a “final readiness check” prior to the Derby.

“We know how important it is to provide a great experience to our wagering account holders, not only on the first Saturday in May, but every day,” said the statement, signed by TVG’s chief executive, Kip Levin. “Today, plain and simple, we let many of you down, and we’re sorry.”

Twinspires.com itself seemed to be experiencing problems as post time neared as well, but it is not clear if the site rejected bets. Payoffs on some Derby bets on the site, hampered by the sheer volume of winning wagers on a race where the first four choices finished in order of their odds, were delayed by at least 10 minutes.

In addition, many horseplayers reported that smaller account-wagering sites shut off Derby betting well before the horses entered the gate, perhaps because of the long delay between the scheduled post time and the time the race actually went off.

The effect of the TVG breakdown and, perhaps, other problems at ADW sites, showed up most clearly in the individual betting pools for the race. Win, place, and show bets were down 11.2 percent, exacta betting was down 8.6 percent, trifecta betting was down 10.4 percent, and superfecta betting was down 17.8 percent. But the pick three, pick four, pick five, and pick six pools ending in the Derby were all up, suggesting that betting on the Derby in the individual race pools should have been much stronger.

(DRF counts bets on the Derby as any day-of bet based on the race outcome or any horizontal bet ending in the race. The totals do not include the various parimutuel future wagers that Churchill conducts, including the new exacta and sire future wagers this year.)

Up to the Derby, including the extra race, wagering was $57.9 million, up 21.9 percent over wagering on the races preceding the Derby last year. First post on Derby Day in both years was 10:30 a.m., but Churchill squeezed an extra race into the card prior to the Derby by reducing the time between the other races on the card.

With the additional race, total betting on the Derby card this year was $188.9 million, down 1.3 percent from record betting of $191.4 million last year, according to the charts.

Churchill said that ontrack wagering on the Derby day card was $23.5 million, up 2.2 percent compared with last year’s on-track betting figures. Ontrack wagering on the Derby was $11.3 million, a 6 percent decline from 2015, Churchill said, indicating that weakness in the Derby betting figures may have also been related to the field, aside from the ADW problems.

Attendance was 167,227, Churchill reported, the second-highest in Derby history. The day started out partly sunny with temperatures in the high 70s, but a fast-moving thundercloud hit the track approximately 90 minutes prior to the Derby. When the system moved through, temperatures cooled markedly, and it was sunny for the Derby. The record Derby attendance was reported last year, when Churchill said it was 170,513.