Horse racing isn't top of mind all year for most bettors. So on the morning of the Kentucky Derby or Preakness, you expect to hop onto your normal sportsbook like DraftKings or FanDuel and place your bets. But in the United States, horse racing is governed and offered a little differently, meaning in most states, you need a separate app.
Can You Bet on the Preakness at FanDuel & DraftKings?
You can't bet horse racing in the normal sportsbook app in many states. You have to use a separate app. In some states, you can use the FanDuel Sportsbook app to bet racing; in no states can you use the DraftKings Sportsbook app.
Here's the state by state breakdown of what's available where:
Why is this the case? A few different reasons. One is regulatory — FanDuel acquired TVG in 2022, giving it access to TVG's existing states. Due to state restrictions, it could only integrate racing into the sportsbook app in some states.
The other reason is how the odds work. U.S. horse betting platforms use parimutuel odds, which means the odds are dictated 100% by how much money is being wagered on each horse, not set by an oddsmaker. It also means your odds can and will change after you've placed the bet.
- FanDuel is the only sportsbook app to integrate U.S. horse betting into their sportsbook (in some states only). But FanDuel Racing also exists as a standalone app for users in both sports betting and non-sports betting states.
- DraftKings has a separate app called DK Horse, created in partnership with Churchill Downs. There's no horse betting in the DraftKings Sportsbook app in any state.
- Some states have exclusive apps, like New Jersey's 4NJBets, which is just a white-labeled version of the TVG app.
A total of 41 states have online horse racing betting, with Texas having an in-person option. North Carolina legalized horse betting when it legalized sports betting in March 2024, but is yet to launch. Strangely, horse betting is legal in Missouri, but there are no facilities to do so.
