Online bets salvation for Leamington horse racing
Track's focus on the internet sees it post solid success
Harnessing the power of online betting saved Leamington Raceway this year after COVID-19 forced spectators to stay away and in-person wagering dried up.
“It would have been really devastating for us,” said Tom Bain, mayor of Lakeshore and director of the Lakeshore Horse Racing Association.
“The online betting has really saved our racing out there in Leamington. The first couple Sundays were a little disastrous for us.”
Bain said online betting ended up being so successful this year, bringing in about $30,000 every Sunday, that the association plans on applying to get more race days next year.
This year's harness horse racing season ran for 13 Sundays from early August to late October.
“We have applied for 15 for this upcoming year based on the success that we were able to have,” said Bain. “Every track was faced with the same problem, that they couldn't have anybody there in the stands. We were able to once again lead the betting for the local area tracks.”
Things didn't look so promising at the start of the season, when spectators were not allowed.
Before COVID-19 hit, Bain said the weekly races attracted a crowd of about 1,000 people.
“When we first opened up this year, of course, we couldn't have anybody there the first three Sundays,” he said. “And people just weren't aware of being able to online bet.”
A year ago, bets generally ran between $30,000 and $40,000 on any given Sunday. The pandemic drastically changed that.
“On our first two Sundays we started out there we only bet around $8,000 and $11,000,” said Bain.
Restrictions eventually eased slightly and the track was allowed to have 100 spectators for much of the season, but that wasn't enough to make up for the lost in-person bets.
“That was our big thing, the people out there betting live,” said Bain. “Our big strength in Leamington is the people themselves. So then we had to go to online betting. People just weren't aware of it.”
The online betting didn't take off at first. But after they got the momentum going, weekly wagering nearly returned to normal.
“We really had to do a huge job of social media and getting the word out there to use it,” said Bain. “Our betting went up to $30,000 again just with the online betting.”
He said people from across Canada started betting on races in Leamington. For the last few Sundays, bets even came in from some U.S. states.
“What we're looking at doing is increasing that even more,” said Bain. “Really, people anywhere in North America could bet Leamington Raceway.”
Without online betting, Bain said they'd be having a much different conversation. The operation likely would have been forced to shut down, he said, killing 2,000 direct and indirect jobs in the process.
“I think unless the provincial government would have come in and bailed us out, they probably would have shut us down,” said Bain.
“If you're not getting the bets in there and helping to pay for yourself, they would have closed racing up in our area.”