Sport is the only game in town

Socially distanced crews in New York and California are keeping horse racing on television in the U.S. during the coronavirus pandemic.

Horse racing is one of the few sports ongoing, albeit in a limited capacity at a handful of empty tracks, but its TV presence has expanded because of the dearth of other options. The New York Racing Association helps produce "America's Day at the Races" on Fox Sports, TVG has partnered with NBC Sports for a dozen hours of coverage each week and the hope is the struggling industry can stay afloat and gain more exposure during these trying times.

"Horse racing has been a welcome substitute for other events that are currently unavailable," Fox Sports executive vice president Mike Mulvihill said. "Viewing of horse racing has tripled over last year. Online sign-ups for new bettors are up. Betting handle at the tracks we present is up. It's been a nice bit of normalcy when the rest of the sports world is anything but."

For a sport that usually only garners national attention from the Kentucky Derby through Triple Crown season, horse racing is benefiting from being the only game in town. Total viewership on Fox Sports 1, Fox Sports 2 and NBC Sports Network is up 206 percent in 2020 from the same time last year.

Different kinds of viewers are tuning in, too, and TVG CEO Kip Levin said the tone of broadcasts changed quickly to accommodate that.

"Hats off to our production and talent team: Literally within days they had shifted from talking to the fan that knew a lot about the sport to talking to and really educating the audience in ways in which we don't normally do," Levin said.

More casual bettors are signing up for NYRA's program, as well as FanDuel Racing. NYRA chief revenue officer Tony Allevato said it had signed up seven times the amount of people over the past three weeks than the...