New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy expects to sign a bill permitting racetracks to offer fixed odds wagering instead of pari-mutuel betting. The legislature approved the bill on June 21.
Monmouth Park offered this style of betting in 2018 and 2019 after the track opened a sportsbook. Dennis Drazin, the president of Monmouth hopes to offer fixed-odds bets on July 17, the day of the Haskell Stakes, according to DFR.
“Definitely we will be doing it for Haskell Day,” Drazin said. “We will see how long it takes to have it up and running for every day.”
Unlike pari-mutuel wagers where the odds fluctuate up to race time, fixed-odds bets lock in the price. Such wagers are popular in the U.K. and Australia.
Once such wagers take hold, customers can place bets anywhere in the track or online, Drazin said. Monmouth has an exclusive agreement with BetMakers to manage the fixed-odds business.
Also in New Jersey, a state panel on June 16 advanced legislation to the full Assembly to remove the prohibition against betting on New Jersey colleges. The state Senate has already passed the proposal.
If signed into law, the bill would require voters to approve a Constitutional amendment to change the ban. The issue would appear on the fall ballot. And if voters say yes, the legislature will have to pass enabling bills to permit wagers on New Jersey schools, according to the Associated Press.
When sports betting was passed in 2018, lawmakers voiced concerns that betting on college games in the state might impact integrity issues. In the three years since, those fears have fizzled away in the wake of the scrutiny accorded to sports betting.
