US-based racing, gaming, and online entertainment company, Churchill Downs Incorporated (CDI) has announced that it will be entering the online sports betting sector in the US through two new partnership agreements with SBTech and the Golden Nugget Atlantic City. The agreement between CDI and SBTech will see the later provide an online gaming platform including a consumer website, mobile apps, and back office systems. The aim of the partnership with SBTech is for CDI to enter the online gambling sectors of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, where online gambling and sports betting has already been approved. Mississippi will also be targeted…

Efforts to legalize real-money online poker in California this year are likely dead, but that doesn’t mean stakeholders in a future industry there aren’t already gearing up for the long road ahead next year and possibly beyond. The most recent firm to form a partnership for online poker in the Golden State was Louisville-based Churchill Downs, according to a Thursday report from The Courier-Journal. The deal is with Crystal Casino & Hotel in Los Angeles and Ocean’s 11 in Oceanside, which are under the same ownership. The partnership means the groups would work together to bring a poker site to…

Churchill Downs has entered into an agreement with card rooms Oceans 11 and Crystal Casino to partner for online poker should a bill pass to legalize and regulate the activity in California, OPR has learned. Terms and details of the deal are not available. The news comes as momentum continues to build for a regulated online poker bill in California, even as the larger political picture remains murky. Churchill, home to one of the few truly iconic brands in gaming – the Kentucky Derby – currently operates one of the leading online horse racing wagering sites in TwinSpires.com. The company…

One of the most recognizable names in horse racing is joining the field in New York’s sprint into big-time gambling. The company that owns Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby, is teaming up with a track to pursue a full-fledged casino just outside the state capital. The project is one of nearly two dozen coming into focus as the state moves to issue up to four casino licenses. Final bids are due on June 30, with a decision on locations expected in the fall. On Monday, a state gambling panel assigned to choose casino locations said that bidders in…

Courier Journal – Corporate leaders from Louisville-based Churchill Downs Inc. talked about the new over-sized video board at its namesake track and other issues facing the company in a Thursday conference call with investors and analysts to discuss the company’s $700,000 first-quarter loss. …An analyst asked when Churchill would begin to see returns on its investments for an Internet gambling platform for games like online poker. “We believe that over time the Internet gaming market in the U.S. will develop into a significant opportunity for us and for others as well, of course,” Evans said. “We plan to be a…

Park City Daily News – On Kentucky Derby night 2012 someone murdered Adan Perez. The groom’s body was found in a backside barn at Churchill Downs. No arrest has happened, and almost two years later the case has grown cold. This sad and unresolved situation is symbolic of so much in thoroughbred horse racing now. Despite plenty of positive (as chronicled in a preceding column) there are several serious problems that prevent racing from reaching its full potential and returning to its past position in the pantheon of America’s most popular sports. One stark reminder of racing’s darker side is…