Puerto Rico welcomed the return of horse racing this weekend, almost three months after the activity was shut down due to the pandemic. As reported by the Puerto Rico Horse Reform Committee, 419,576 direct bets were registered on Friday, while 436,948 were registered on Saturday.

“We want to thank the horse racing fans for this robust start in Puerto Rico,” said Eduardo Maldonado, executive director of the Committee. “We know that thousands of Puerto Ricans who weren’t used to placing bets on this sport have decided to do it and are excited to have some type of sports activity to look forward to. We appreciate you, you’ve made a big difference.” 

The island’s legislation establishes that bets can be placed through the Simulcast platform at other authorized racetracks. The net result of the weekend’s betting resulted in horse racing raised over $21,000 on Friday, and $26,000 on Saturday.

“This has been achieved thanks to the hard work of all the members of the industry, riders, trainers, stable personnel, owners, breeders and equestrian agencies.”

“On Friday, 333 agencies opened their doors to the public to place bets. On Saturday, we registered 344 more. This is great news, not only for the industry, but also for the sports fan in general,” added Maldonado.

Puerto Rico is currently looking for new sources of revenue, and as part of that initiative, the Gaming Commission has recently selected Gaming Laboratories International (GLI) to advise on the regulation of esports operations on the island.

According to government estimates, esports could bring around $87m in profits to the Puerto Rican government in the first five years of operations.