US Horse racing TV viewing figures triple

The global sports blackout has seen US fans switch on to horse racing.

US.- Television viewers of horse racing in the US has more than tripled in 2020 so far after decades of declining audiences.

While the majority of sports across the country have been cancelled due to Coronavirus, horse racing events have taken place as planned in countries such as Japan.

According to Reuters, the TV audience on Fox Sports 1, Fox Sports 2, and NBC Sports Network was up 206 per cent in 2020 from the same period last year.

Broadcasters have had to adapt to their new audience while also experiencing a change in production quality due to less staff being able to work because of tCovid-19.

FanDuel Group’s TVG racing network CEO, Kip Levin said: “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.”

Much of horse racing across the globe is cancelled at present, with the UK market effectively shutdown. Many horse racing fans there have chosen to bet on Sweden’s market.