BetMakers and Penn Entertainment Extend Their Racing Partnership Into 2026

Horse racing fans and industry watchers have fresh news to chew on. BetMakers Technology Group, the Australia-based wagering technology specialist, has locked in a brand-new three-year contract with Penn Entertainment to keep handling the international distribution of Penn’s racing content. The deal kicks off on January 1, 2026, and includes a mutual option to tack on another year if things go well. For both companies, this is about doubling down on a partnership that started back in 2022 and has proven its worth ever since.

What the New Deal Actually Looks Like

The updated agreement keeps BetMakers in its position as the exclusive global distributor for all of Penn’s racing content when it comes to fixed-odds betting, derivative wagers, and exchange wagering. When international bettors want to place bets on races from Penn’s extensive stable of racetracks, BetMakers is the gateway making that happen.

This isn’t just about renewing old terms, though. The contract has been restructured in ways that both parties see as mutually beneficial. The minimum annual fee has been trimmed down to US$2.5 million, plus an additional $200,000 earmarked specifically for promoting Penn’s racetracks. But here’s where it gets interesting: Penn will now receive a share of any revenue generated above that guaranteed minimum. This structure shifts the arrangement from purely fixed payments toward a more performance-driven model, aligning both companies’ interests around growth.

BetMakers has projected that this combination of revised commercial terms and expected revenue increases should add roughly A$1.2 million per year to its EBITDA over the contract’s duration. Worth noting: revenue generated under the previous deal already exceeded the new minimum guarantee last fiscal year, which bodes well for the company’s margins moving forward.

The agreement also builds on the existing services BetMakers provides to Penn, including Host Tote operations, Betline terminals, and digital wagering solutions. It also enhances access for international Tote customers while maintaining exclusivity for B-pool wagering.

Voices from Both Camps

Jake Henson, BetMakers’ chief executive officer, didn’t hold back his enthusiasm. He described Penn as “a valued and important customer” and expressed confidence in the partnership’s future. He stressed that the extended deal is intended to deliver better returns for racing stakeholders and bring Penn’s racing product to a wider global audience, calling the amended agreement a positive step for both sides.

On Penn’s side, Chris McErlean, the company’s vice president of Racing, matched that optimism. He praised BetMakers as a global leader in racing distribution and technology, crediting their expertise and international reach as instrumental in expanding the footprint of Penn’s racing content. McErlean emphasized that both organizations are looking ahead to maximize the value of Penn’s racing assets and create new opportunities for their racing stakeholders.

Getting to Know BetMakers: From Turnaround Story to Growth Mode

For those unfamiliar with BetMakers, the ASX-listed company has been on quite a journey. Headquartered in Australia, the firm specializes in wagering technology solutions across two main segments: Global Betting Services and Global Tote. Their technology touches everything from basic race data, pricing, and form guides to sophisticated analytical tools, trading platforms, and white-label wagering solutions.

The company’s financials tell a story of transformation. After navigating some rocky periods, BetMakers delivered what it called its strongest financial performance to date in the quarter ending June 2025. Revenue climbed to about A$22.6 million for the quarter, representing a high single digit percentage increase from the previous period. Even more impressive was the improvement in gross margins, which jumped from the mid 50s percent range to more than 70 percent year on year.

Adjusted EBITDA swung from a multi-million dollar loss just a quarter earlier to a positive result of a little over A$3 million. Operating cash flow also improved substantially, moving from a meaningful outflow in the prior year period to a solid inflow in the latest quarter.

Executive chair Matt Davey has highlighted the company’s investments in technology, AI-driven software, product development, and cost control measures as key drivers of this turnaround. The Apollo platform, BetMakers’ flagship wagering technology, has been a major focus. Monthly bets on Apollo have increased markedly and active users have risen by over a third across a recent six month comparison window, helped by migrating more customers onto the platform.

Adding to BetMakers’ momentum, just days after announcing the Penn deal renewal, the company revealed an exclusive multi year agreement with Betfair Australia to deliver the full technology stack for the launch of CrownBet, a premium Australian wagering brand set to debut in early 2026. BetMakers will supply its complete solution, including a fully customized Apollo deployment, trading and risk management, content engine, and core platform technology. The company has described this CrownBet deal as the most significant commercial milestone so far for Apollo.

BetMakers’ market capitalization sits in the mid hundreds of millions of Australian dollars, and its shares have rallied strongly in 2025, reflecting investor confidence in the turnaround strategy and in the growing pipeline of large scale platform deals.

Penn Entertainment: A Racing Giant with Big Changes Underway

Penn Entertainment brings serious scale to this partnership. The company stands as one of North America’s largest owners of pari-mutuel facilities, with full or partial ownership in ten racetracks across the United States. These include Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course in Pennsylvania, Charles Town Races in West Virginia, Hollywood Gaming at Mahoning Valley Race Course in Ohio, Zia Park in New Mexico, and Sam Houston Race Park in Texas.

Penn conducted well over 900 live racing dates in 2024 and processed close to $1 billion in pari-mutuel handle on its races. The company’s racing profile has grown in recent years, hosting marquee events like the Grade 2 Charles Town Classic with a purse in the seven figures and the multi million dollar New Mexico Breeder’s Classic Championships.

Beyond racing, Penn operates more than 40 gaming properties across 20 states under brands including Hollywood Casino, Ameristar, and Boomtown. The company reported revenue in the mid six billion dollar range for fiscal year 2024, growing low single digits from the previous year. Its net loss narrowed significantly, improving by more than a third as management pushed through cost efficiencies and recalibrated its interactive strategy.

Penn has been making headlines for reasons beyond racing lately. The company and ESPN mutually agreed to end their high profile sports betting partnership that launched ESPN Bet in 2023, winding down what had been framed as a ten year, multibillion dollar alliance. ESPN Bet struggled to capture meaningful share in a highly competitive U.S. sports betting market dominated by DraftKings and FanDuel, which prompted Penn to pivot. The group is now rebranding its sportsbook as theScore Bet, leaning on the Canadian brand it acquired earlier, and refocusing on areas like iCasino and Canadian operations where it sees better paths to profitability.

For Penn’s racing division specifically, the expanded partnership with BetMakers provides a clear route to monetizing racing content internationally at a time when the broader company is reshaping its digital portfolio.

The Monmouthbets Angle: Fixed Odds Come to America

One aspect of this partnership generating particular buzz involves BetMakers’ expansion of its Monmouthbets platform across the United States. Monmouthbets is the first legal, regulated mobile application for fixed-odds betting on horse racing in America, built initially around Monmouth Park in New Jersey.

Fixed-odds betting works differently from the traditional pari-mutuel system that has long dominated U.S. horse racing. With pari-mutuel wagering, all bets go into a pool, the operator takes a cut, and the remaining amount is divided among winners. Odds constantly fluctuate based on how much money is bet on each horse, which means the price shown when you place your wager may not be the price you end up getting paid.

Fixed-odds betting locks in your price the moment you submit your wager. If you bet on a horse at 5 to 1, you get paid at those odds regardless of what happens to the betting market afterward. This is how virtually all sports betting works, so it feels natural to the growing number of American bettors who have gotten used to wagering on football, basketball, and other sports since the federal sports betting ban was overturned in 2018.

BetMakers launched Monmouthbets at Monmouth Park in 2023, and the platform has since expanded to carry racing content from tracks like Parx Racing, Tampa Bay Downs, and Canterbury Park. What makes this expansion clever is the licensing structure. Monmouthbets operates under a license from the Oregon Racing Commission, allowing it to serve eligible bettors in multiple states without having to secure an individual sports betting license in each one. The model uses long standing racing and advance deposit wagering frameworks rather than relying solely on newer sports betting laws.

This approach has drawn attention from industry observers as an example of how existing racing regulations can be repurposed to extend online wagering reach in a more efficient way.

Why Fixed Odds Matter So Much Right Now

The timing of BetMakers’ fixed-odds push is no accident. Pari-mutuel wagering on U.S. thoroughbred racing has been trending downward for years. Adjusted for inflation, handle has dropped by more than half since around the turn of the century. Industry figures show that wagering on thoroughbred races in 2024 came in at roughly the low eleven billion dollar mark, down a few percentage points from 2023, and marking the third straight year of decline.

Trade publications have described 2024 as one of the toughest recent years for the sport, pointing to a shrinking number of race days and fields alongside the fall in wagering. The contraction has fed concern that horse racing is losing relevance with younger bettors who are gravitating toward mainstream sports betting, online crypto casinos, and newer formats like same game parlays.

Fixed-odds betting is viewed by many insiders as a possible antidote. Research commissioned by BetMakers indicated that a large majority of surveyed U.S. horseplayers would like to have fixed odds available in addition to traditional pari-mutuel pools. Surveys of general sports bettors show that a significant share would be more likely to wager on horse racing if it were offered in the familiar fixed-odds format they already use for other sports.

Australia is often held up as a case study. After fixed-odds horse racing betting became widespread there more than a decade ago, total prize money levels roughly doubled over time. Today, fixed odds account for the vast majority of betting turnover on racing in that market, while the pari-mutuel system continues to operate alongside it rather than disappearing entirely.

At the moment, only a small handful of U.S. states have explicitly legalized fixed-odds wagering on horse racing. New Jersey was the pioneer, Colorado followed with an operator launch in 2024, and West Virginia approved fixed-odds racing in 2025. In New York, the state racing association has urged lawmakers to allow fixed odds, arguing that it could generate tens of millions of dollars in new tax revenue and provide an additional funding stream for breeders, owners, and other stakeholders.

Who Else Is Playing in This Space?

BetMakers is far from alone in the racing technology and data vertical. 1ST Technology, which operates the AmTote brand, is the largest pari-mutuel betting processor in North America, handling well into the tens of billions of dollars in annual handle for racetracks and off track betting outlets. Its systems have powered tote and pool betting for decades.

Another notable name is Racing and Sports Technology, a company that specializes in data and information services for global horse racing. It collects and processes data from thousands of racecourses and provides form, odds, and content to bookmakers and media customers, particularly in Australia and Europe.

BetMakers has chosen to lean into partnerships rather than trying to build every capability on its own. In early 2025, the company teamed up with Podium, a sports data and content provider, to launch the AdVantage Platform. This integrated solution bundles together racing data feeds, live streaming, trading services, content, and editorial into a single offering, and is designed for sportsbooks that want to offer a deep, racing first experience. The platform can support thousands of races per week across multiple jurisdictions and formats, and includes both fixed odds and pari-mutuel options.

These competitive dynamics mean that BetMakers has to differentiate on product quality, breadth of content, and the flexibility of its platforms like Apollo and Global Tote.

Looking at the Broader Market Picture

The global horse betting market remains sizable and is expected to grow. Recent industry research has pegged the worldwide value of horse betting in the mid forty billion dollar range for 2022, with forecasts suggesting it could roughly double to just over ninety billion dollars by 2032. That implies a healthy mid single digit to high single digit compound annual growth rate over the decade.

Europe currently accounts for the largest slice of that market, but online betting expansion, regulatory changes, and mobile adoption are opening up new pockets of growth in North America, Asia Pacific, and Latin America. Newer technologies are playing a major role. AI powered models are being used for pricing and risk, live streaming and low latency data feeds are making in play and micro markets more viable, and mobile first design is standard for any serious operator.

For BetMakers and Penn Entertainment, the extended distribution deal sits right at the intersection of these trends. By sending Penn’s racetrack content into international fixed-odds and exchange wagering channels, they are attempting to tap into incremental audiences that might never set foot in a racetrack grandstand or log into a traditional U.S. advance deposit wagering site. The financial markets have signaled approval, with BetMakers’ shares rising on the announcement and the stock showing strong gains over the year.

With Monmouthbets using Oregon based licensing to reach multiple states, the CrownBet partnership preparing to launch a new brand in Australia, and more operators migrating to the Apollo platform, BetMakers finds itself in a position where racing tradition meets digital wagering innovation. Whether fixed odds will be enough to spark a true revival in U.S. horse racing is still an open question, but both BetMakers and Penn are clearly betting that this kind of content and technology alliance is a step in the right direction.