Sky Racing World to provide South Korean horse-racing to North American Market

Business News

Sky Racing World, the Louisville, Kentucky-based distributor of international horse-racing content and subsidiary of Australian wagering operator Tabcorp, has partnered with the Korea Racing Authority (KRA), South Korea’s sole racing authority. Under the partnership, Sky Racing World will distribute horse-racing content from the KRA-operated LetsRun Park Seoul and Busan-Gyeongnam tracks to advance depositing wagering (ADW) sites throughout the Americas and Europe, from August 3rd, 2017.

Distributed via the Roberts Communications with a race call in English, Sky Racing World’s Korean racing content will be simulcast 50 weeks a year. On Thursday and Saturday nights EDT/PDT, races will be simulcast from the KRA’s LetsRun Park Busan-Gyeongnam in the country’s second largest city, and from the capital’s LetsRun Park Seoul track on Friday and Saturday nights EDT/PDT. The Korean races will be simulcast from approximately 9:45 p.m. until 3:30 a.m. EDT (6:45 p.m. PDT to 12:30 a.m. PDT).

With all of the three best-ranked thoroughbreds in Seoul and Busan bred in the US, Sky Racing World’s ADW partners will offer wagering on Korean racing to their customers from Thursday evening EDT/PDT, August 3rd, 2017.

ADWs will be able to offer their customers a range of bets on these and subsequent Busan and Seoul races. These include win, show/place, exacta, trifecta, pick 3, pick 4, and superfecta. Free past-performance data on the fields in Korean races will be available on Sky Racing World’s website and from Equibase.

The South Korean racing schedule will continue weekly through August before reaching its summer climax on Saturday, September 9th 2017, with the second annual G1 Keeneland Korea Cup. This 3-year-old and up race with a purse of 1 billion KRW ($877,000) runs over 1,800m at LetsRun Park Seoul. The day also features the G1 Keeneland Sprint, a 700 million KRW ($614,000) race for 3-year-olds and up over 1,200m.

David Haslett, President and CEO of Sky Racing World, said: “South Koreans wager over $7 billion annually on horse-racing and the quality of the country’s racing is comparable to our core Australian product. It therefore serves as an important addition to the international horse-racing content we provide to ADWs. With the Keeneland Korean Cup, Keeneland Sprint and other major G1 races scheduled, we expect our Korean racing product to provide our wagering partners with a powerful tool for retaining existing customers and acquiring new ones.”

Seong Won Jeon, Marketing Director at the Korea Racing Authority, said: “The KRA has been operating thoroughbred horse-racing in Korea for nearly 100 years. With its rich field size and easy-to-learn form, more than 1,000 races are simulcast annually in countries like Australia, Singapore and Malaysia. With this partnership with Sky Racing World, we hope race fans in the Americas will see and feel the excitement and the thrill that Korean racing has to offer.”

 

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