Kentucky Derby Helps Boost Lackluster Sports Betting Industry

Derby business was brisk heading into this weekend, a sign that things are starting to stabilize for an online sports betting industry that has had a tough time surviving since passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act this past October.  Even worse, charges brought against two founders in an online gambling focused third party payment solution firm, NETeller, led to the simultaneous pullout of nearly every reputable payment processor just prior to this year's Super Bowl, considered the most bet on single day sporting event. 

Recovery was not in the cards for March Madness, another bread and butter period for the online sports betting shops.

The Kentucky Derby has brought renewed hope however.

"We had 75 signups and 51 of those people deposited real money," confirmed the webmaster for 1800-Sports.com. 

Great numbers considering very few people could actually deposit money even as recently as the March Madness season. 

Only a few years ago, the majority of online betting sites did not even offer horse racing as an option.  Today, nearly all do but only a handful really took advantage of this year's Derby to the fullest extent possible.

"The Kentucky Derby provided us with the most traffic for any single day sports event last year," disclosed Sports911.com's Payton O'Brien.  "We are still calculating this year's numbers, though we were somewhat thwarted by stiff competition from other websites."

The Derby is comparable to the Super Bowl when it comes to gambling revenue, though the Super Bowl is still considered the grand daddy of all one day wagered sporting events. 

Traditionally, the remainder of the Triple Crown slate tends not to perform as well, especially the Belmont Stakes if it is known there will not be a triple crown. 

"We believe that there is still an outstanding revenue source for the online sports betting community with the remaining two races," O'Brien commented.  "It may not be up to the Kentucky Derby standards but it will certainly help boost revenues for North American focused online gambling firms that would otherwise be solely relying on the NBA finals, and little of the NHL finals and some baseball."

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Christopher Costigan, Sports911.com

Originally published May 8, 2007 12:43 am ET