Not content to be a success on their own continent, British online gambling giant Betfair is hoping to make a trip across the pond to take over the fledgling horse racing game in the great state of California.
Betfair is placing its future on the Golden State thanks to a law passed this September that allows state residents to bet on horses through online exchanges. Since then, the company has launched a new office in San Francisco and is staffing up to pounce on the legalization when the law takes effect in May 2012.
Analysts hope that legalizing online horse betting could help revitalize the industry, as wager revenue has been in the shitter for quite a while.
“The industry is hoping that the growth of the online space is going to help offset the decline of traditional on- track betting,” Anil Gupta, an analyst at Imperial Capital in Los Angeles, told Bloomberg News.
When the law takes effect, California will be the second state to feature some form of legalized online gambling, as New Jersey is expected to launch its own exchange laws in mid 2011.
