Q&A: Brad Cummings

With the announcement last week that EquiLottery–a new lottery game melding the traditional lottery with horse racing–was available to states and provinces, the TDN sat down with EquiLottery President and CEO Brad Cummings to learn more about this unique potential revenue stream for the horse racing and lottery industries. 

TDN: EquiLottery seems to be a win/win situation for horse racing. Is it as much of a win for the lottery? If so, why? 

BC: It’s an absolute win for the lottery. It’s bringing a new excitement to the lottery game. Currently, a lottery player has the option of a scratch off or a lottery ball going down a chute. The infusion and the excitement of horse racing to the lottery process offers some really obvious benefits to the lottery. Additionally, we have polling that shows 10 to 15% new players would join the lottery ranks–people that might not be drawn to the current lottery system, but because of the infusion and the excitement that racing provides they will be more likely to become lottery players. Any game or any product that could add 10 to 15% to the bottom line of a business is something that any business would want to look at. Additionally, we’ve been getting unsolicited phone calls and emails from lottery corporations around the country. Clearly, all three of those factors show that there is definitely a reason for lotteries to be engaged. 

TDN: Will EquiLottery require a lot of money to get going in each region? 

BC: It will not require any seed money to get going. It is integrating completely with the pari-mutuel pool at the track that already exists. Within each jurisdiction, we will build an EquiLottery race of the day with one race in one pool that all the lottery money goes into. It will utilize the existing money in that pool from a horseplayer perspective as well as the lottery player money that comes in on top of that. Now, the horseplayer has potentially a reason to look at that pool even more closely because the lottery money will be random money and that will create what we refer to as sort of a “Kentucky Derby Effect” where favorites pay more than usual. 

TDN: Depending on which jurisdictions decide to utilize EquiLottery, how will the different races be selected on a daily basis? 

BC: We will work with the racetrack and the lottery to plan a race. Every state is different. Some states have night racing only and some states only day racing, so we will have a mixture of it. We will work with different racetracks and lottery corporations to come up with a strategy of a certain pocket of time to choose the largest race field of that day, on a normal day. However, we also will be building a national and regional calendar to generate larger pools. For instance, the Kentucky Derby would be a national race that would be played on that Saturday in any jurisdiction that has EquiLottery. Additionally, on a day when the Santa Anita Derby and the Wood Memorial are running, western states would play the Santa Anita Derby, and eastern states would play the Wood Memorial. There will be national races, there will be regional races and then there will be local races that are played in each state. 

TDN: With EquiLottery hopefully widespread, would customers be able to pick which pool to play in, or would they be restricted to their respective regions? 

BC: They will be restricted to the race that their local lottery chooses to play that day whether it is a local race, a regional race for that day, or a national race. So there is no selection for the lottery player. That is partially by design. The reason I created this game is because the racing game is a difficult wager to understand initially with so many options, past performances, different kinds of bets, etc. We are simplifying the process. It’s a quick pick bet with a pool and a racetrack and a race all predetermined and all we’re concentrating on is the excitement of the racing product. 

TDN: What happens when a horse is scratched? 

BC: Free ticket; it’s a common term within the lottery ranks. If you play a scratch off, one of the things you can win is a free ticket. It would just get refunded and hopefully put towards the next race of the day. 

TDN: Have there been any responses on an international level? 

BC: We have received interest in North America from the U.S. and Canada, which is the target market we’ve been looking for. 

TDN: Since EquiLottery was announced last week, has the response been within expectations, or is it more popular/less popular than you hoped? 

BC: It has wildly exceeded my expectations. We’ve had specific reach-outs from racetracks and lotteries from 14 different states and provinces. We’ve had over 6,000 people visit the website. Just walking around the Fasig-Tipton sales grounds Monday was a revelation of people who are clearly very interested in what’s going on and what this product is. I guess when you think about it, that’s on some level to be expected. It’s an intriguing idea. It has been an idea people have talked about for years. How do we bring racing and the lottery together? And so the fact that we have this product that we very publicly announced and that we’re very publicly advocating for, is drawing a lot of interest makes sense. My dance card is completely booked all of a sudden. I’m flying across the country for the foreseeable future. As you know, we had a really exciting moment in Frankfort on Friday where a couple of representatives–a senator and a representative of Kentucky–asked the CEO of the lottery whether this game would be something they would consider, and they said it was doable and they will continue to consider it. We’ll have a pretty exciting announcement here soon about some follow up to that. 

TDN: Where has the response been the best/the worst? 

BC: We haven’t had any bad responses. I suppose those who would not be interested haven’t reached out to us. Anybody I’ve talked to has shown great engagement. The only thing, and it’s not even a negative, is that people maybe initially don’t understand the full concept of the game. That’s to be expected. It’s a hard thing to communicate effectively in a full-page ad. It’s something that requires a presentation oftentimes. It requires some time to sit and explain the game. It’s not a bad response; it’s a response of “explain more,” which I suppose is actually a sign of positivity because they are interested in the concept. The best response we’ve received is just the idea that we have 14 racing states and lotteries that have reached out to us. The fact that I am currently booked to fly around the country and present says something. It’s been a great response. 

TDN: What feedback are you getting from interested parties so far? 

BC: We are being asked the right kind of questions, like asking about revenue studies. We have those for several different states and provinces. We will continue to develop more of those. They obviously want to see what kind of revenue impact they can expect from a game like this. When we share those numbers with them, it’s never been anything but a positive. For example, we did a study of 10 racing states if they all played the trifecta pool at the Kentucky Derby. The total handle impact would be $97 million. Last Derby, 2014, the entire handle was $124 million. That’s an 80% increase in the Kentucky Derby pool with just 10 states involved. Imagine what that looks like now with 30 states and provinces in Canada playing the Derby all at once. Those are the kinds of conversations we’re having. Feedback is predictably very positive. 

TDN: Anything I haven’t asked you that you would like to add? 

BC: Just because our dance card is full doesn’t mean we can’t add somebody else. Whether you are a racetrack executive, or a horsemen’s group, or an interested party that feels like you could help bring EquiLottery to your state or province, I hope they’ll reach out to us. That they’ll reach out to me specifically. We are aggressively pursuing this, and this is something I’ve been working on it for 4 1/2 years quietly–answering all the questions that need to be answered, getting the patent completed and getting it to look right. All these things have culminated in this moment where we’ve been able to answer this unanswered question of how do we bring racing to the lottery. We’re just over-the-moon excited, and hope that we will continue to get industry support and we continue to look forward to anyone that wants to be engaged. Interested parties can contact me for more information about EquiLottery at brad@equilottery.com.