AmWager sees an opportunity for pari-mutuel wagering beyond horse racing. The timing is fascinating, the potential is real, and the obstacles are significant. For an industry desperate for new wagering products, however, exploring the idea is considerably better than accepting more of the same.
Full disclosure is appropriate at the outset. AmWager has been one of Past the Wire’s longest-standing and most loyal sponsors. That relationship did not produce this article, and AmWager had no involvement in its conclusions. It does give us every reason to examine the concept fairly, and every obligation to examine it honestly.
AmWager CEO Nelson Clemmens presented “Pari-Mutuel Sports Betting: The Next Evolution” at Bet Bash. The premise is relatively simple. Instead of a bookmaker establishing a line, accepting wagers and assuming liability for the outcome, bettors wager into a common pool. The operator removes a predetermined commission, and the remaining money is divided among those holding winning tickets.
Horseplayers have understood that arrangement for generations. We wager against one another, the track or wagering platform removes its takeout, and the final payoff is determined by how the pool is distributed when betting closes. AmWager’s concept would extend that architecture into football, basketball, baseball, golf, auto racing and potentially almost any event with a defined outcome.
According to AmWest Entertainment, the parent company of AmWager, operators could function as facilitators, collect a fixed commission and avoid exposure to wagering outcomes. That reduces operator risk and potentially provides a scalable alternative to conventional bookmaking.
The machinery can work. The larger question is whether it can produce something bettors will choose to play.
An Industry Starved for Wagering Innovation
Horse racing badly needs new wagering products, new customers and new sources of revenue. That is not a revelation to anyone who has watched handle stagnate, foal crops decline, field sizes shrink and operating costs increase. Racing cannot spend another decade discussing customer acquisition while offering essentially the same wagering menu to a steadily aging customer base.
The sport has attempted innovation before, although some efforts appeared to confuse simplicity with value.
Horse Racing Roulette, introduced at Santa Anita several years ago, divided the field into three groups identified as red, black and green. The bettor selected a color, and a wager was successful if the winning horse belonged to that group. It was easy to understand and visually familiar to casino customers. It was also offered with a 15.43% takeout.
That was the problem in miniature. Racing took a casino game associated with simplicity and a relatively low house advantage, attached a substantially higher pari-mutuel takeout, and expected the novelty to overcome the economics. The wager never developed into a meaningful national product. One contemporary analysis calculated that when $3,000 was played through Racing Roulette, approximately $2,537 would be returned to bettors, compared with roughly $2,845 from the same amount cycled through conventional roulette. Customers may try something new. They will not repeatedly purchase a familiar concept at an inferior price.
AmWager’s proposal deserves more serious consideration because it is not limited to adding casino colors to a horse race. It raises the possibility of using racing’s pool-based wagering expertise to create entirely new sports products. If structured properly, those products could generate revenue for operators, attract sports bettors, introduce customers to pari-mutuel wagering and possibly create additional funding for purses and aftercare. Every one of those “coulds” comes with conditions.
The Legal Foundation Exists in Nevada
Nevada already has a specific regulatory structure covering off-track pari-mutuel sports wagering. Regulation 26B requires an operator accepting those wagers to be a nonrestricted gaming operation licensed to accept wagers on sporting or other approved events. It also contains provisions governing common pools, systems operators and participation by out-of-state pari-mutuel books.
The regulation has existed in some form for decades but has never produced a significant market. Earlier efforts stalled. Its existence nevertheless matters because Nevada would not have to invent an entirely new legal classification before the first pool could be opened.
There has also been a potentially important infrastructure development. Australian wagering technology company BetMakers completed its acquisition of Las Vegas Dissemination Company, Nevada’s exclusive approved provider of pari-mutuel wagering services for horse and greyhound racing. A global tote specialist now occupies a central position within Nevada’s pari-mutuel infrastructure.
This does not give AmWager a nationwide license to offer sports pools. An advance-deposit wagering license for horse racing does not automatically extend to football or basketball, and the Interstate Horseracing Act was written specifically to govern interstate wagering on horse races. Expansion outside Nevada would require approval under the laws and regulatory structure of each participating jurisdiction. Nevada provides a place to begin. It does not provide a national solution.
A Massive Market With Powerful Competition
The market AmWager hopes to enter is enormous. Legal American sportsbooks accepted $166.94 billion in wagers during 2025 and generated $16.96 billion in revenue, according to the American Gaming Association. FanDuel, DraftKings, BetMGM, Caesars and other established operators have spent billions acquiring customers, building technology and conditioning sports bettors to expect fixed prices, immediate confirmation, live wagering, same-game parlays, cash-out options and substantial promotional incentives.
Prediction markets have now created another formidable lane. Kalshi and Polymarket allow customers to trade contracts tied to sporting and other events, generally at prices between one cent and 99 cents. Those prices move with supply, demand and new information, and customers may be able to exit a position before an event concludes rather than waiting for a final settlement.
During the 2026 World Cup, Kalshi reportedly recorded $27 billion in trading volume and added approximately three million users. Reuters Comparisons with sportsbook handle require caution because prediction-market contracts can be traded repeatedly, causing the same position to contribute to volume more than once. The growth remains impossible to dismiss. That surge cuts both ways for AmWager. Prediction markets are competition for any new sports-wagering product. They already possess liquidity, national brand recognition, extensive financial backing and the ability to offer continuous trading. Their ongoing legal battles with state regulators could alter that landscape, but they have established themselves in the consciousness of American bettors.
They have also demonstrated that customers will embrace an alternative to the traditional sportsbook. Bettors are not married to a ticket reading -110. They will learn a different interface and a different vocabulary when the product offers access, flexibility, price or opportunity they believe they cannot obtain elsewhere. That is encouraging for pari-mutuel sports wagering. It also raises the standard.
The Final Price Problem
Consider a bettor who likes the Chiefs at -3. A sportsbook offers -110, and the bettor knows the exact price before confirming the wager. If the line later moves, the original ticket retains its price. Place the same proposition into a pari-mutuel pool and the experience changes. The bettor may see an estimated return when making the wager, but the final payoff will not be known until the pool closes. A large late wager can materially change the result. We horseplayers, with this every day. A horse is 8-1 as the field loads and crosses the wire paying 9-2. The explanation may be mathematically legitimate, but it does not make the customer feel any better. Sports bettors have not been conditioned to accept that uncertainty. Many will ask why they should surrender a known price to participate in a pool offering the same side, total or moneyline available at numerous sportsbooks. AmWager would need large common pools shared among multiple operators, transparent probable payouts, clearly enforced closing times and safeguards against sophisticated late money overwhelming recreational players. Seeded liquidity or guaranteed minimum pools may be necessary during the introduction period.
Without liquidity, the prices become volatile. Without competitive prices, liquidity never arrives. That is the circle the product must break.
Takeout Will Decide Whether It Has a Chance
Removing the bookmaker’s risk can be an advantage, but only if some of that advantage reaches the bettor. A conventional sportsbook offering both sides of a market at -110 has a theoretical hold of approximately 4.5% when wagers are evenly divided. Competition, line shopping and promotions may reduce the actual cost experienced by an informed customer. A pari-mutuel sports pool carrying the 15%, 18% or 20% takeout commonly found in horse racing would begin at a severe disadvantage. Calling it a commission rather than takeout would not change the mathematics. The basic sports pools likely need a takeout near 5%, and possibly lower, to become credible. Higher rates might be sustainable on distinctive jackpot products offering small denominations and extremely large potential returns. They will not be sustainable on an NFL side that can be purchased elsewhere at a known price. Horse racing cannot export its takeout problem to a new group of bettors and call it innovation. The failure of Racing Roulette should have settled that issue. A simple wager at a bad price remains a bad wager. If the operator assumes no outcome risk, the bettor should receive a meaningful portion of the resulting savings.
Do Not Build Another Sportsbook
The least compelling version of pari-mutuel sports betting is a replica of a sportsbook board with the fixed prices removed. Football sides, basketball totals and binary game winners can be placed into pools, but those products enter direct competition with deeply liquid sportsbooks and prediction markets. The pari-mutuel model is better suited to propositions with multiple possible winners and to combinations capable of producing significant payoffs. Golf and auto racing are natural fits. A tournament or race with numerous entrants resembles the structure horseplayers already understand. Win pools, matchup pools and finishing-position wagers could work without forcing the model onto an unnatural format. Personally, I have a passion for Formula 1. As much as I enjoy wagering, F1 is not naturally an ideal betting sport. A player often has to get creative with futures, parlays or prediction markets to find worthwhile opportunities. If the pari-mutuel concept can change that in a sport as broad and internationally popular as Formula 1, it is worthy of serious consideration.
The larger opportunity may be a sports Pick 6.
Select the winners of six NFL games. Connect games across several sports. Build a weekend jackpot combining football, basketball, baseball, golf and racing. Offer survivor pools, tournament pools and progressive carryovers. Allow a customer to invest a small amount for an opportunity to win a substantial common pool. Sportsbooks offer parlays, but the house establishes every price and builds its margin into every leg. Prediction markets are excellent for trading individual outcomes but are not naturally constructed around shared Pick 6-style jackpots. Pari-mutuel wagering can produce an experience neither one offers in quite the same way.
A national sports Pick 6 would not ask bettors to abandon something familiar for an uncertain version of the same product. It would give them something different.
That is where this concept becomes interesting.
Why AmWager Has a Reason to Pursue It
AmWager is a relatively small racing ADW competing in a market containing companies with racetrack ownership, casino operations, sportsbook platforms and enormous marketing budgets. It has built its reputation through speed, wagering tools and a platform designed by horseplayers. It also cannot presently offer wagering on Churchill Downs racing, including the Kentucky Derby, because of a longstanding contractual dispute. AmWager has publicly acknowledged that limitation on its own website. AmWager Few things better illustrate the vulnerability of an independent ADW. A company can invest in technology, customer service and player development, yet a powerful content owner can withhold access to the most recognizable race in America.
Developing wagering products that are not controlled by a racetrack corporation gives AmWager a measure of independence. Sports pools would provide year-round inventory, reduce reliance on racing content agreements and create intellectual property that belongs to the company developing the product. That makes diversification understandable. It may make it necessary.
Racing Should Share in the Benefit
Pari-mutuel sports betting would not automatically contribute one dollar to horse racing merely because it uses racing’s wagering system. Any contribution to purses, aftercare or racing operations would have to be created through legislation, contracts or the distribution of the commission. That should be part of the discussion from the beginning. If racing provides the regulatory history, pool technology, operational knowledge and initial customer base, racing should participate in the economics. A clearly defined percentage could support purses and accredited aftercare organizations. Sports pools could be marketed alongside racing wagers through a common wallet. Sports bettors attracted by a jackpot product could be introduced to racing, while existing horseplayers could remain engaged with the platform throughout the week. The industry needs new revenue sources. It should not surrender the architecture it created without negotiating a return.
Aftercare also provides a compelling point of differentiation. Sportsbooks and prediction markets can compete on bonuses, prices and convenience. A pari-mutuel product that visibly directs part of every pool toward the horses supporting the original system can compete on purpose as well. That alone will not overcome poor pricing. Combined with low takeout and a compelling wager, it becomes meaningful.
The CAW Lesson Cannot Be Ignored
Horse racing has already shown what can happen when technology, access and liquidity develop without sufficient protection for the ordinary customer. Computer-assisted wagering teams receive rebates, rapid data feeds and technological advantages unavailable to most recreational horseplayers. Their late wagers can dramatically alter prices, leaving retail bettors with returns they could not reasonably anticipate when their wagers were placed. A new sports-pool system must address that vulnerability before launch rather than after damage is done. Equal access to data, firm pool-closing rules, transparent commission rates and protections against privileged late entry should be foundational requirements. The industry does not need to recreate the same imbalance with different athletes on the screen. AmWager has an opportunity to build these principles into the product instead of attempting to repair them years later. That may prove more valuable than any single wager it creates.
Worth Pursuing, Difficult to Execute
Pari-mutuel sports wagering is unlikely to replace fixed-odds sportsbooks or prediction markets. It does not have to. The legal sports-betting market is so large that even a modest share can generate meaningful revenue. The better measurement of success may be whether pari-mutuel wagering can establish a specialty category built around tournament pools, survivor games, cross-sport combinations and large jackpots. Nevada offers a regulatory starting point. AmWager brings experience operating pools and serving horseplayers. BetMakers’ arrival inside Nevada’s pari-mutuel infrastructure adds another capable participant. Racing brings more than a century of practical knowledge about pooled wagering. The ingredients exist. Liquidity, takeout, regulatory expansion and consumer adoption remain unresolved.
For a sport surrounded by administrative failures, contracting disputes, shrinking participation and resistance to change, a serious attempt to create a new wagering product is welcome. Innovation carries the possibility of failure. Stagnation has made its outcome considerably more predictable. AmWager is asking a worthwhile question. Can the pari-mutuel model developed by horse racing create a new lane in American sports wagering?
The answer depends upon what gets built. Reproducing sportsbook wagers with unknown final prices will have limited appeal. Creating low-takeout sports pools with national liquidity, substantial jackpots, equal customer access and defined benefits for racing could be something entirely different. Horse racing has spent years asking where its next generation of customers and revenue will come from. Perhaps part of the answer is already sitting inside the tote.
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