When the MARS Maryland 5 Star announced that in 2024, it would be introducing sports betting to the sport of eventing in the United States, the idea was was met with mixed emotions. But Jeff Newman, President and CEO of the event, believes that the addition of sports betting at the upper levels of the sport can make a huge difference.
“Sports betting is ingrained in sports culture,” Newman shared during the session Sports Betting in Eventing at the 2024 USEA Annual Meeting & Convention, held Dec. 12-15 in Seattle, Washington. “If you watch a sporting event, there’s not a commercial that goes by that isn’t talking about DraftKings or FanDuel. It has grown incredibly fast here in the U.S.”
Newman referenced an article published by Sports Business Journal which noted that October of 2024 set an all-time high for sports betting, with over 16 states across the country setting new records. The state of New York saw $2.3 billion in wagers come in during the month, a $2 million increase in comparison to their previous record set in November of 2023. Four states, Maryland included, all topped $500 million.
“What does this mean for the states that have sports betting?” Newman said to the crowd. “It’s incremental revenue. It’s tax revenue that drives healthcare and educational initiatives and other special projects. When you are in a down economy, sports betting can really be a great stimulant for the states.”
One of the biggest hurdles equestrian sports face is attracting attendees to their events, in particular attendees who are not directly involved in the sport already. Newman feels sports betting is one way eventing can draw new crowds that can support the sport in the U.S.
“For us at the Maryland 5 Star, there are a lot of reasons for us to have sports betting,” he said. “I think for those that are interested in having attendees and ticket sales and hospitality, sports betting is a great way for you to increase the interest and your fan base. That was the reason why we did it. It also increased event awareness and awareness of the sport. We’re in a very, very crowded marketplace. October is actually the busiest month on the sports calendar. We are up against all professional sports across many markets in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and D.C. We are also up against every college sport. This was a matter of, ‘How do we get my event to continue to be of interest to people?’ We need to do what is part of sports culture, and sports betting is a big part of that.”
Newman also noted that sports betting lends itself to being newsworthy, drawing more eyes to the event and the sport itself.
“We got tremendous coverage by implementing it this year from all the major publications in our area,” he noted. “Baltimore Business Journal did a feature on it, so it really helped create more awareness.”
The MARS Maryland 5 Star was the first three-day event in the U.S. to offer sports betting, and Newman was willing to pilot this initiative for many different reasons.
“In the four years that we’ve been running our event, our expenses have gone up 40%,” he shared. “We need to figure out ways to continue to generate more revenue streams in order to keep up with expenses. As we all know, equestrian sports are really expensive, so we wanted to beta test [offering sports betting] this year, and we tried to keep it pretty simple.”
Following FEI guidelines, athletes were not allowed to participate in the wagering process, as well as officials or organizers. Newman’s team also worked with the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency to ensure their sports betting procedures followed state regulations as well. And then, it was time to see the results.
“It ended up being really interesting because we had a top-10 bet, but we only had eight riders left in our Sunday competition, so everyone was a winner in that particular case.”
Newman turned the microphone over to Diarmuid Byrne, Managing Director and co-founder of EquiRatings, the leading equestrian data analytics company in the world. Byrne and his co-founder Sam Watson have developed EquiRatings over the years to not only provide innovative performance metrics and risk management tools that are widely used across the sport, but they’ve also focused their efforts on ways to use their metrics as a tool for fan engagement.
“Whether you talk about what we do from a sports betting point of view, or a podcasting point of view, we really believe that the sport has to be a spectacle. It has to be a kind of entertainment that you want to go see,” said Byrne.
“Imagine for a moment that we aren’t talking about our sport,” he continued. “The sport has to be easy to follow and worth following. We watch loads of American football now in Ireland. When it comes to the Super Bowl, no one really knows anything about the teams in Ireland. We don’t know teams or players or how it works, but we have so much piped into us every Sunday night supported by content.”
He talked about how sports like football have many different ways that fans can get involved through Fantasy Football or WhatsApp groups or sports betting, and there are countless ways that anyone can say something about the sport and be heard.
“Sports betting really can help us as a sport,” said Byrne. “There’s lots of ways to do it, but it is a really good vehicle for people to access [eventing]. Rather than talk about the pros and cons of eventing, because I think you could argue both ways and land in a lot of different places, I think you need to see it fit into what the sport is trying to achieve in a more macro sense.”
Byrne referenced a slide on the PowerPoint he created that noted that active fan engagement is built around a four-part framework which includes a spectacle that is easy to follow, making an event worth following for fans, supporting the event with content distribution, and giving followers a way to get involved.
“Watching a horse go cross-country is a brilliant spectacle,” Byrne said. “We have an amazing thing to see, but we have to then bring it onto the next part of it. Loads of sports don’t have what we have. They have other parts of the formula, but they’re kind of boring to watch—but you can bet on them, you can have opinions, you can follow along because you get lots of content.”
He noted that areas we can improve are making our sport easy to follow and worth following to non-horse viewers. Suggestions included making live scoring easier for people to follow along while on the go and not on the event grounds. He also noted that in terms of being supported by content, eventing as a whole does well in this aspect internally, but we rely heavily on the industry press to get there, and we can find alternative ways to bring outside media sources in and make content, such as commentary, more effective through storytelling.
One big thing our sport lacks, according to Byrne, is rivalries.
“We’ve no rivalries at all in our sport, and I know why, to some degree, in that we are a sport where the riders are together against the course, but without rivalries it’s hard to sell. It’s a harder thing to say it’s X against Y this weekend at this event.”
Offering sports betting, however, gives fans a way to get excited about their favorite riders being on an event’s entry list and creates a sense of “rivalry” or competition that we don’t currently have.
“We enjoy the sport so much in our offices or our houses, we talk about it all day and all night, but some of that is we are only doing that ourselves. We bet on it ourselves against each other, but [offering betting] could be so much fun. It gives us a vehicle for more people to care about the sport and have opinions. I think there’s huge value and potential in it, just because it facilitates our ability to have an opinion and care about the sport. I see it from a totally different point of view than just straight numbers. I think it’s a vehicle into the sport, and in that regard, I think it would be a huge addition.”
About the USEA Annual Meeting & Convention
The USEA Annual Meeting & Convention takes place each December and brings together a large group of dedicated USEA members and supporters to discuss, learn, and enjoy being surrounded by other eventing enthusiasts. The USEA organizes multiple seminars in addition to committee meetings, open forums, and tons of fun! The 2025 USEA Annual Meeting & Convention will take place in New Orleans, Lousiana, on Dec. 11—14. Click here to learn more about the USEA Annual Meeting & Convention.
The USEA would like to thank the USEA Annual Meeting & Convention Sponsors: Adequan, ARMA, Bates Saddles, D.G. Stackhouse & Ellis, Gallops Saddlery, Horse & Country, Kerrits, Mrs. Pastures Cookies for Horses, Nunn Finer, Nutrena, Parker Equine Insurance, PulseVet, Rebecca Farm, RevitaVet, Ride iQ, Schneiders Saddlery, SmartPak, Standlee, and World Equestrian Brands.
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