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Photo: Benoit |
An impasse in California over fee rates for interstate advance deposit wagering that has had a negative impact on Hollywood Park's fall meet ended Nov. 21 with the announcement that one-year deals with the four licensed providers in the state have been reached.
The end of the stalemate comes in time for out-of-state ADW bettors to wager on a double Pick Six carryover at Hollywood on the night of Nov. 21.
Drew Couto, president of the Thoroughbred Owners of California, which represented the horsemen in the slow-moving negotiations, said the agreements will cover out-of-state ADW wagering on races for all California tracks for a one-year period. The deal includes TwinSpires, XpressBet, YouBet.com, and TVG, which holds the exclusive television broadcasting rights for Hollywood Park.
Couto said the one-year period will give representatives from all sides the opportunity to assess the agreement "to make an evaluation going forward so that we can avoid these sorts of impasses in the future."
He declined to provide any details of the agreement. He said the deal, brokered through the TOC's national representative, the Thoroughbred Horsemen's Group, achieves its goal of the broadest distribution possible of the California ADW signal while addressing source market and host fee rates, which horsemen contended were unfavorable to the racing industry.
Couto credited the THG, of which the TOC is a founding member, for "getting this done." While the resolution applies only to California tracks, "It serves as a model" to possibly solve similar ADW disputes in other parts of the country, he added.
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