Rachel Alexandra Returns to Churchill Downs

It's Oaks Down in the River City and for those of you who are unfamiliar with the ways of Louisville, that means it's a holiday here and no one will be working, whether they go to the track or stay home and plant a garden.  The day has dawned with beautiful blue skies, sunshine and temperatures that are expected to hit 85 by post time of the Kentucky Oaks.  This is in stark contrast to the weather forecast for tomorrow, which features heavy thunderstorms all day, making for a sloppy track and a drenched crowd, particularly in the infield.


Derby Week is usually good for new on the racing and breeding industry, since so many players descend on Louisville for the week.  This week, however, news has been relatively scarce.  We have learned that Frank Stronach, the man responsible for taking Santa Anita, Gulfstream  and Pimlico racetracks into bankruptcy, will be allowed to keep them as they emerge from bankruptcy; a result which should be viewed with mixed emotions.  He is a better owner than a group of creditors would have been, but he needs to hire someone with a bold vision and the ability to generate cash from sources other than on track wagering or we will be right back where we started in just a few years.

In a interesting article, Joe Drape of the New York Times takes a look at the economic woes of the thoroughbred industry as seen by the depressed state of the industry in Kentucky.  The Kentucky horse industry has been trying to get authority to operate casinos, or at least slot machines, for years now only to be thwarted every time by the Republican controlled State Senate, which refuses to pass any bill authorizing gambling or permitting any measure go to the voters for approval.

The Oaks Day card at Churchill Downs features a number of stakes races in addition to the Oaks itself.  The most interesting of these will be the $400,000 Grade II La Troienne, which marks the return of Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra to Churchill Downs where she won the 2009 Kentucky Oaks.   She is a 3-5 morning line favorite in the 1 1/16 mile race, which also features Zardana, the only horse to ever beat her.  Zardana bested Rachel Alexandra in her return to racing on March 13.

The Oaks is a bit more wide open than orginally anticipated as a result of the entry of Devil May Care in the Derby, although Blind Luck will go off as a heavy favorite.  Include Quiet Temper and Amen Hallejuah in your exacta. 

As for the Derby, the misfortune afflicting favorites has continued as the favorite and second favorite have drawn terrible post positions.  Lookin At Lucky will be in post position one and Sidney's Candy has drawn the far outside, post position twenty.  I'll be back later with my Kentucky Derby picks since the weather is forcing me to reconsider some choices but I'll leave you with this thought: consider the slop performance in their pedigree as you try to discern how these horses will run

F1 Driver's Thumbs Insured for One Million Euros

We've always known that there is a lot of money to be made on the Formula One circuit.  After all, Kimi Raikkonen finished third on the Forbes list of highest paid athletes in 2009 with $45 million, while finishing third in the Formula One standings that year.  In 2008, Lewis Hamilton, became the youngest driver to win a F1 championship and the first black, earned $32 million and finished seventeenth on the Forbes list.

Now we get to find out just how much money there really is.  News comes that Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso, the other member of the sports top three drivers has had his thumbs insured for nearly 9 million euros by team sponsor Santander.  Sure, thumbs are valuable in driving cars, but 9 million euros?  Turns out, upraised thumbs are a bit of trademark for Alonso and that coupled with their importance in driving prompted Santander to buy the insurance, especially since the team is reportedly paying him in excess of $25 million.  That amount certainly makes those thumbs insurable any day. 

How Much is Winning The UEFA European Champions League Worth?

There is no question that competing in the Champions League is very valuable to any club, from those eliminated in the first round to those who make the championship game.  The question is how much is it worth to make it into that championship final?  In 2009, it has been estimated that FC Barcelona's win was worth up about 110 million Euros, after factoring in television revenue, prize money, increased ticket sales, increase in squad value, sponsorship and media rights.  Similarly, Manchester United's win in 2008 has been estimated to be worth about $110 million, factoring in all of the same factors mentioned above.

The immediate impact on team value was starkly represented yesterday following Olympique Lyon's loss to Bayern Munich on Tuesday night.  At the close of Wednesday's trading, shares in Lyon had fallen 15%, reflecting the loss by Lyons and its loss of no less than $65 million, which is the value attributed to the loser of the championship game in 2009.  The stock was unchanged in today's trading.

Cubs , White Sox Sell Naming Rights to Crosstown Classic

Now this is something I didn't expect to see and I suppose it's another example of the changed focus of the Cubs new owners.  The Cubs and the White Sox have gotten together and found a unique way to sell naming rights to the annual Crosstown Classic played as part of interleague play each summer.  The teams play two three game series, one in each stadium.

The winner of the series will get a new BP Crosstown Cup, which will be an actual trophy.  The price BP is paying for its three year contract to name the trophy has not been disclosed but it has been reported that each club would earn in excess of $1 million in the deal, money which both clubs need to shore up their rosters.

Kentucky Derby Looks Wide Open as Favorite Ruled Out

It's a rainy Monday in the Ville to start Derby Week and it's gloomier than usual around the Todd Pletcher barn. Pletcher, who has been the nation's leading trainer and his horses have won seven of the twenty-one graded prep races leading up to the Derby.  Going into last weekend, he had a possible eight horses that could be Derby entrants and that didn't count the filly Devil May Care who was entered in both the Derby and the Kentucky Oaks.  However, his Derby luck, or rather the lack thereof, since Pletcher is 0-24 in Derby starts, unfortunately seems to be holding.

Everyone's favorite Eskendereya, the winner going away of the Wood Memorial was ruled out of the Derby on Sunday with a leg problem.  Then, this morning, Pletcher scratched Rule but confirmed the filly Devil May Care will run in the Derby.  Barring injury, and the possible scratch of Line of David who struggled in his workout today on an off track, the field should be set at twenty. 

The morning line will now not likely come from the Pletcher barn, which is probably a relief to Todd.  It is likely to be Lookin At Lucky, the third place finisher in the Santa Anita Derby after a very troubled race.  He is likely to be around 3-1. The next choice is probably the horse that beat him at Santa Anita, Sidney's Candy with Awesome Act third.  Awesome Act is an interesting horse.  He came over from England to win the Gotham Stakes and finished third in the Wood Memorial, so I think he got accustomed to the North American racing style just fine.  Also at a reasonably short price for a twenty horse field should be the filly. 

UK High Court Rules Fixtures Are Copyrighted

Expect to see fewer schedules of English Premier League games in favorite newspaper or online site in the coming days as a British High Court has ruled that the fixtures are copyrighted by the English Premier League.  The EPL and four other bodies  brought the case against companies including Yahoo over their unlicensed use of fixtures (schedules to Americans). 


The ruling is contrary to one from the European Court of Justice, which in 2004 ruled against protection of fixture lists, but the High Court found that compiling the fixtures required sufficient work to warrant protection.  To compile the fixtures, the scheduler has to take into account television, of course; making sure that no teams played at home in the city on the same day and making sure that dates were left open for European competition, while still ensuring that the clubs competing in Europe and the domestic cup competitions.


I'm not too sure an American court would agree.  Given the 2007  from the Eight Circuit Court of Appeals in the case involving Major League Baseball and the operator of fantasy sports games, in which the Court uphheld a District Court decision that the operator's First Amendment right to free speech trumps the players and MLB's right to publicity and MLB cannot control the use of game results or a player's name and statistics.  Major League Baseball's  petition for certiorari was denied on June 2, 2008, so the Eighth Circuit decision stands today as the law of land at least in Missouri and several neighboring states.  The various players in fantasy sports are now treating the case as the basis for their bargaining, which is another reason why I don't think you would see the same result her.

Live Running Wagering (Day Trading) In Vegas

There is certainly a lot of movement in and around sports betting in America these days.  I just recently wrote about the fantasy game being run by the Philadelphia Daily News allowing online fantasy gaming. In addition, a sports betting hedge fund is about to be launched in the UK, not unlike one proposed several years ago by Mark Cuban, although the newer one now being organized has a broader based strategy.

Now In Running Wagering has come to Vegas, not to mention numerous offshore sports books, some calling it Live Betting or some other variations.  It brings concepts similar to day trading to sports betting. An affiliate of the Wall Street firm Cantor Fitzgerald, Cantor Gaming is using its computerized trading background to develop the algorithms needed to be the market makers for the game.  It has developed a mobile, hand-held device for use by players in playing inline wagering live in Vegas sportsbooks.  With sufficient mathematical skills, trend analysis should be as applicable to inline wagering as it is to the stock market, opening up new possibilities for traders who need that market trading rush in the evening when New York markets are closed. ESPN's E:60 had a story on inline wagering last night.

Adios Lorena! Ochoa Announces Retirement from LPGA

Following in the footsteps of Anneka Sorenstam, the woman she succeeded as the world's number one player, Lorena Ochoa announced her retirement from the LPGA tour.  While she didn't say so in the announcement, she has previously indicated a desire to spend more time with her husband and step-children and to have children of her own.

I'm sure everyone involved in the LPGA wishes Ochoa well, however this was not a retirement that the tour needed this year.  The tour is already reeling from the impact of the Great Recession and to lose one of its most popular players is bound to have an adverse affect on television ratings and crowd turnouts at a time that the tour can least afford it.

Here's Anneka on Ochoa's retirement:

Brandon Knight to Kentucky Starting a Trend (And Not The One You Think)

Brandon Knight is the consensus nunber one high school basketball player of this year's senior class and was perhaps the most sought after recruit this season.  He announced the other day that he would attend Kentucky, following the path to Calipari trod by Derrick Rose, Tyreke Evans and John Wall.  That path, of course, includes playing point guard for Calipari for one year, leading the team fairly deep into the NCAA tournament but ultimately losing and then leaving for the NBA after one year as a high draft pick.  

Knight, however, may start a new trend which, if it takes, will be a far greater legacy to the players that follow him than continuing a point guard tradition that fails to one the last game of the season could ever hope to be.  You see, Brandon Knight orally committed to Kentucky and has signed an offer of financial aid tendered to him by the university. Either Knight is unusually perceptive or he is surrounded by good advisors or, most likely, both.  IN a switch from the standard letter of intent, the offer of financial aid is binding on the university but does not commit the student to attend.  If Calipari take the offer of millions of Russian rubles to coach the Nets and Knight doesn't like his replacement, then he is free to go elsewhere, without sitting out a year.  

I have long wondered why the big time players, especially, have not followed this route.  You know that the teams will keep their spots, so there is no chance that their position with the team will be affected and the university is bound to honor the scholarship for one year in any event.  And, as we know, no scholarship is valid for more than one year anyway.  The moral of the story is if you have the market power, use it and don't sign a letter of intent - only sign the grant of financial aid.  If something goes down before school starts and you don't like it, you'll be glad you did.

Yum! and KFC Name a New Bucket

Yum! and its wholly owned subsidiary KFC bought naming rights to the new Louisville Arena for a relatively modest ten year $13.5 million, in a deal announced today by the company and the University of Louisville who will be the prime tenant in the arena.  Yum! Brands has its world headquarters in Louisville. In addition, Yum! Brands has the naming rights to the Cardinals on campus basketball and volleyball practice facility and coaches offices.

The arena will be called the KFC Yum! Center, and not the KFC Bucket as was originally proposed several years ago when the then Charlotte Hornets considered moving to Louisville before moving to New Orleans.  I expect the Bucket name will catch as a nickname for the $238 million arena, which opens this fall with a women's basketball game between Louisville and traditional national power Tennessee.  The first men's game, announced today, will be with national runner-up Butler. 

Kroenke Exercise Option to Buy Rams; Arsenal May Be in Play

Stan Kroenke, the billionaire by marriage owner of the Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche, not to mention a significant stake in Arsenal of the English Premier League, which we will get to later, has decided to exercise his option to purchase the equity interests in the St. Louis Rams which he did not own.  Kroenke currently owns 40% of the Rams, with the remaining 60% held by Chip Rosenbloom and Lucia Rodriguez.  Kroenke also held a right to match any offer Rosenbloom and Rodriguez received to purchase their interest.  He exercised that right last week, setting up a showdown with the NFL and Commissioner Goodell.


The NFL has cross-ownership rules that prohibit an owner from owning a franchise in another sport in a different city than the owner's NFL city.  Under that rule, Kroenke's Denver franchises would preclude him from owning the Rams - Arsenal would not yet be a problem as Jacksonville has yet to decamp for London.  It would appear that Kroenke is itching for a fight and believes that he either has enough owners on his side already or has found a way around the restriction.  According to espn.com, he has not asked for an exemption nor does he intend to sell the Nugget or Avalanche.  ESPN suggests he may hand over control of the Denver operations to his son, implying that may be enough to satisfy the NFL.  If so, that would be an awfully easy way out of the problem and a fix that would seem to be available to almost any owner; enough so that the rule would be gutted, which wouldn't be a bad thing since it doesn't make any sense in the first place.


Across the pond, it appears that control over Arsenal may finally be put into play.  Kroenke and Alisher Usmanov have been accumulating shares for some time in anticipation of the opportunity to gain control.  That opportunity is at hand.  Nia Bracewell-Smith, the owner of nearly 16% of the club has hired Blackstone to market her interest.  If either Kroenke or Usmanov acquire it, he will cross the 30% ownership line which, under UK law, requires a mandatory takeover bid.  Stay tuned, the buying and selling of Premiership clubs as if they were houses in a game of Monopoly  continues unabated.

Philly Paper Offers Online Fantasy Gambling

The once unbreakable line against legal sports betting in this country continues to show significant cracks.  The latest breach appears in the online version of the Philadelphia Daily News.  The paper is offering an online fantasy gaming outlet called "Instant Fantasy Sports Games" in partnership with FanDuel.com, a British wagering company. Games are currently being offered for the NBA, NHL, and MLB.


"We're trying to serve two goals," said Yoni Greenbaum, vice president of product development at Philly.com. "Those are content differentiation and revenue. If you're looking at the sports sites out there, a lot of them have the same stuff. In this day and age, sports fans have insatiable appetites."

 Right now, the game is free to play and you can win cash.  However, once the paper starts charging people to play, how is this game different from most other forms of sports gaming which the Feds have decided to shut down?  Mind you, I have no objection to the game and hope that the Daily News finds it to be wildly successful, sparking imitators around the country.  Maybe then we'll finally see the popular groundswell needed to get rid of the ridiculous limitations on sports gambling in this country.

HT: Wiz of Odds

Liverpool FC for Sale

The disposition of Tom Hicks' sports empire rolls on, as the debt problems of the former privater equity king continues on unabated.  Following the sale of the Dallas Stars and the Texas Rangers, Hicks and 50% partner George Gillett are being forced into a sale of the Premier League club Liverpool as a condition imposed by Royal Bank of Scotland to extend the maturity debt of loans owed to it from the club and the two owners relating to the owners purchase of the club.

Gillett, who has financial issues of his own, which forced a sale of the Montreal Canadiens, and Hicks are barely on speaking terms as a result of their dispute over how to manage Liverpool, the direction the club should take, the stadium deal and financing package it should pursue and most importantly the capital calls needed to operate the club and meet its current obligations. 

The sale of the club should resolve all of those issues, but the market has cooled since their original purchase and whether the pair will realize any return on their invested capital is questionable.  A sale should resolve the club's supporters issues with the owners as well.

Say Goodbye to Cowboys Stadium

Yesterday, before a festive tailgating crowd who came to say goodbye to an old friend and following an honorary fireworks display Cowboys Stadium was imploded in a stunning display of engineering destruction.  In case you missed it and haven't yet seen the videos flying around the 'net, here is a chopper view of the implosion:

Watch this video on VideoSurf or see more Videos or Chopper Videos

Monday Morning Links

These were the stories I was reading over the weekend while watching Phil cop a third green jacket (does he really get three jackets or do they just bring out his old one and slip it on him?):

Ky's Attorney General and favorite for the US Senate appears to have a Derby starter, after his colt, named after deceased childhood best friend, wins the Bluegrass Stakes - at 40-1 (C-J)

Manchester United lost 15 million Pounds by losing in the Champions League quarterfinals (SportsBusiness)

NCAA's long nightmare is now over, UND retires the Fighting Sioux nickname, mostly (Grand Forks Herald, WSJ)

Cubs new club seats a mere $24,300 per year, minimum two required (Medill Reports)

Kansas jumps into the seat mortgaging scheme known as "equity seat rights" to renovate football stadium (Topeka Capital-Journal)

It's just what the football world needs, another bowl game (Dallas News)

Giants holding Tweetup at their April 30 game with the Rockies, featuring a pregame panel discussion with Twitter co-founder Biz Stone and others (Business of Sports)

Not to be missed profile of women who raised the consciousness about brain trauma and the NFL (NYT)

What were you reading?

Kentucky Sues to Recover Online Gaming Losses

The Great Commonwealth of Kentucky is at again.  Governor Steve Beshear, whose administration is so far best known for being unable to get a casino gaming bill through the General Assembly despite public opinion polls overwhelmingly in favor, has once again decided to take on the online gaming industry.  This time he has dusted off an ancient statute allowing losers of illegal gambling operations to sue to recover their losses.  The suit was filed in late March against Full-Tilt Poker and other unknown entities operating online gaming sites.  As authorized by the statute in question, the Commonwealth is seeking to recover three times the amount wagered by Kentuckians on the sites.

There are several holes in the Governor's legal theory.  First, the statute was passed to allow losers to recover their losses from the operator of an illegal game.  This suit seeks to recover all amounts wager through these suits, relying on KRS 372.040, which can be found here.  This statute, which may never have been tested in court, provides anyone the right to sue to collect treble damages from the operator of an illegal if the loser has failed to do so within six months of losing.  It seems extraordinarily broad to me and certainly not intended to apply to online gaming but to situations in which the gullible player has been duped by a shady operator in the back of a bar, the corner of an alley or a riverboat.   The true purpose of the this section of the stature is lost to antiquity, however, as Kentucky does not maintain legislative history.

A bigger problem for the Commonwealth I think is that none of the games in question actually took place in Kentucky.  Based on that fact alone, I think Kentucky is going to have an extraordinarily difficult time winning this case, at least on appeal,  and that it was filed to help the Governor politically much more than it was a true effort at stopping the scourge of online gaming.

CBS Dream Year Continues Through Final Four

Whatever CBS President Leslie Moonves is drinking or smoking, we should all have just a little, as CBS Sports dream year continues.  CBS starts the year with Super Bowl XLIV, which not only produced drama, excitement and a dream come true for a city that richly deserved it, but was the most viewed television program in history.

The NCAA tournament becomes a must watch special as favorites are thrown overboard with abandon, and Cinderella Butler makes a charmed run home to Indy and the Final Four.   While losing favorites and name schools usually results in lower ratings, the tournament continues to draw higher ratings than last year throughout and the presence of Duke in the championship game makes the story almost irresistible. Overall, CBS is up 5.7% over last year for the entire tournament and Saturday's two semifinal games were each up 8% over last year's semifinals.

The Tiffany Network's luck continues to hold as The Tiger Masters, a tradition like no other tees off Thursday to what will no doubt be through the roof ratings.  Could CBS have scripted Masters coverage any better than to have Tiger make his first competitive appearance come in front of the azaleas and the CBS cameras? 

The world will take a break from CBS this summer for the World Cup, an event being telecast live from  South Africa by ESPN/ABC, but CBS will return to center court with the US Open.  Fall finds it back in front with its weekly college football game from the SEC and AFC games from the NFL. I would think Mr. Moonves is looking at the rest of the year with great anticipation.

Sports Betting Hedge Fund launched

You may have thought that all hedge fund strategies had been tried and, well, found perhaps somewhat wanting during the Great Recession.  However, you would have been underestimating the ingenuity of those wizards of Wall Street and The City who are always dreaming up new ways to separate you and your money.  This time, they have come up with a hedge fund that will invest in sports betting.  Not invest in casinos, online or offline, mind you where the value proposition is rather easy to determine.  Oh no, not for the boys at Centaur Investments have a "ten year track record of impressive and consistent performance in sports trading," which is good because they are charging investors a rather high management fee of 3% of assets and a very high performance fee of 30% of profits.  For that money, they better be a whole lot better than the folks setting the lines.

Sports seems to the latest trend in hedge funds.  A soccer fund was recently launched with a whole market focus.  The raise was a rather small $40 million, which in today's market won't make a dent in a good Championship club.  The fund doesn't restrict its investment to clubs, however, giving itself the mandate to invest in players, academies, franchises, brands or just about anything else related to soccer that might make money other than betting on the outcome of a game.  For that, there is the Centaur sponsored Galileo Fund.

Is A Bigger March Madness A Better March Madness?

Springtime in Indianapolis usually turns Hoosier thoughts to crankcases  and drivetrains but this year, the Indy 500 will have to wait until May.  The hometown Butler Bulldogs have made the national championship game and Naptown is all abuzz.  However, the lobbies of the hotels near Lucas Oil Stadium are not filled with talk about Butler or Duke, but about the effects of a 96 team NCAA tournament, as it becomes increasingly apparent that the NCAA intends to opt out of its contract with CBS and expand the "perfect" tournament from 65 schools to 96.  According to the format floated to the media by interim NCAA president Jim Isch, the tournament will still be played within its same three week window.

One supposed benefit of an expanded tournament is additional opportunities for tournament participation to be afforded to the schools commonly referred to as mid-major or low major, but are just not the top eight conferences which currently take home 71% of the basketball revenue.  If the tournament expands, it is likely to absorb the 32 team NIT, so we could examine the NIT field for the last couple of seasons to see how adding those teams to the NCAA field would alter the revenue distribution.  Remember, the NCAA distributes basketball revenue on a per unit basis, by conference, with one unit for each team that makes the tournament field and an additional unit for each game won until the Final Four.

 

Adding this year's NIT field would have resulted in giving the power conferences the following additional units:

ACC  10

Big East 7

Big Ten 4

Big XII 3

SEC 6

Pac-10 1

CUSA 6

A-10  10

The CAA and the MVC would each get 2 units while no other conference would get more than one.  The idea that any schools other than the members of the power conferences would benefit from expansion is just another myth being peddled by the power conferences to enhance their control over the NCAA and Division I athletics.  In truth, the gap between richer and poorer would only grow larger and larger and the arms race would continue as new money flowed into the larger athletic programs who would continue to compete over facilities and coaches.  

Expansion of the tournament really serves no true purpose nor does it fill any unmet need.  The power conferences are firmly in control now and don't need to enhance their position.  There is no need to tamper with the one thing that the NCAA has done right (other than to either get rid of the play-in game or make the last two at-large teams play in it) for the sake of a higher TV contract that will go disproportionately to the schools that don't really need it anyway.  Let's keep the Madness on the court.

Arena Football is Back

The all new Arena Football League made its debut tonight in Des Moines Iowa as the Iowa Barnstormers played the good host to the Chicago Rush, losing 61-43.  This game was not only the debut of the new league but serves as a great example of the identity of the new league, which consists of 15 franchises located in a combination of cities that were participants in both the former Arena Football League and its subsidiary AF2.  The Rush were an AFL power, while the Barnstormers, although an original AFL franchise competed in AF2 during the last several years of the existence of the old AFL.

The league begins play with a television contract with NFL Network, which will televise a game on Friday nights throughout the league's 18 game regular season. In addition, the 2010 ArenaBowl, scheduled for the weekend of August 20-23 will be broadcast on the NFL Network, as well at least some of the playoff games leading up to it.