Churchill Downs Inc., the ace gaming company and horse racing giant will no longer offer online Casino and sports betting businesses. However, it will continue its online horse betting operations, ensuring it is available for next-gen punters. In Thursday’s investors’ conference call, the Kentucky Derby operator informed about its exit from online services.

Making the announcement, CEO William Carstanjen said that

“the online sports betting and online casino space is highly competitive with an ever-increasing number of participants that the states have licensed,” are impacting all the players.

In addition, the CEO shared that the increase in the number of players is impacting the profitability factors, both in the short-term and long term.

Hence, CDI is opting to move away from the overcrowded and narrow-profit margin segments of online betting to continue its retail sportsbook operations at its casinos. It will also consider selling its market-access rights to competitors wherever needed.

Six months to exit

The exit plan is likely to take nearly six months as it continues to rework its focus to the traditional onsite games.

Industry analysts have been speculating about the number of players likely to exit the game’s online versions. Apart from CDI, Wynn Resorts intended to shedding Wynn Interactive division running on the WynnBet-app. The sale was considered a ‘fire’ sale since the parent company was burdened with taxes and high-cost promotions. 

According to Bloomberg, CDI, there were talks to sell the sports and iGaming segments as well. CDI was also looking out for an adviser for its sportsbook product. During the same period, TwinSpires talked about finding a buyer for $1.5 billion.

Another player is also looking to bring down its sportsbook ad spending. Caesar’s also announced that it would cut back on the total spending on sportsbook advertising campaigns.

Bally’s Corp., too, announced that it would no longer sustain the “irrational spending on sports betting.

Major sports betting players have been revisiting their online presence. However, the sentiment among these players is that profit-making is highly impacted due to many players in the segment. As a result, companies have launched expensive marketing campaigns to capture a larger market share and begun offering generous -and costly- sign-up offers and free bets.