FanDuel TV's Christina Blacker. FanDuel TV’s Christina Blacker. (FanDuel TV.)
GamblingRacingStreamingBy Andrew Bucholtz on

Ahead of Saturday’s Kentucky Derby, FanDuel TV has been doing on-site coverage from Churchill Downs all week. That’s part of a wider FanDuel deal with the track that was signed last fall. Christina Blacker is one of the FanDuel TV racing experts who’s been involved with their coverage, and she comes at that after almost two decades of covering horse racing on TV. She told Awful Announcing by email the goals of handicapping horse racing and telling good stories on it are the same as they were when she started, but the tools used to do that are different these days.

“The focal point with regard to handicapping and telling stories is still there but the data available when handicapping is constantly evolving,” she said. “I’m always trying new products and improving my understanding of the game to offer that insight to our viewers. Technology has also come a very long way as well.  If you watch FanDuel TV today, you’ll see that investment in the program with talent in multiple locations, drone camera, jockey cam, rail cameras and much more! And then, of course, the advent of social media has accelerated our ability to reach more people instantly with Twitter and educate younger generations with Instagram and TikTok.”

Blacker began her career while studying broadcasting at the University of Southern California, where she interned at HRTV in her senior year. She then started at that channel full-time after her May 2004 graduation, worked there until joining TVG in 2007, then went back to HRTV in 2013. TVG parent Betfair acquired HRTV in 2015 and rebranded it TVG2, leading to Blacker appearing across both TVG and TVG2 (which are now FanDuel TV and FanDuel Racing following a rebrand last fall). She said while that’s been a lot of industry change, the people at each spot have made the transitions work well, especially around that 2015 TVG-HRTV merger.

“The changes have been very smooth, and that’s because we had such great teams at both networks prior to the merger,” she said. “I was fortunate enough to work for both along the way and bringing them together was ideal. The racing team really is like a family. I’ve experienced so many major millstones in my life with members of this team by my side (Anna James was a bridesmaid in my wedding and is godmother to my oldest daughter). And because of that, we all work together and support each other so much.”

She said the FanDuel TV rebrand has also been positive, and has helped them attract a wider sports audience that might be newer to racing.

“The rebrand to FanDuel TV has brought a recognizable brand to an already great team and really taken us to the next level,” Blacker said. “Our business is growing so quickly right now, and as we introduce sports bettors to horse racing, the sky is the limit!”

Blacker said a huge advantage of horse racing is its worldwide nature, meaning there are live events at many hours of the day.

“The brilliant thing about horse racing and FanDuel is that it is always on. There is always racing somewhere, and we generally have that programming available. For sports bettors, you don’t have to wait until the weekend or evenings any more to make a bet or watch an exciting sporting event. The racing is always there, and I think that level of consistency will resonate with players.”

While Blacker grew up in a horse racing family (her father, Frank Olivares, was a jockey for 25 years, and she grew up around horses), she said she never envisioned the sport being so key to her career until she received that college opportunity to work at HRTV.

“That definitely came later for me,” she said. “Horses are my passion, and I always knew I wanted to be around horses and somehow have them in my life, but I never envisioned a career in horse racing. I studied journalism at USC and worked some great internships in the entertainment industry along the way. Originally I thought I would take that path, but I wanted some more hands-on experience with television during my senior year of school, so I applied for an internship at HRTV. They put me on the air that year, and I fell in love with racing! I’m very fortunate that these two areas of my life came together and provided a career path that I love.”

There have been challenges for women in many areas of sports media and sports television, but Blacker said she’s always felt she’s fairly treated covering racing.

“I’ve never had a problem being a woman in this sport,” she said. “For those that participate in the game, (the jockeys, trainers, grooms), horse racing is a lifestyle that requires dedication and hard work. These men and women are up before the sun comes up every day, and they rarely have a day off. If you prove your work ethic, you will be welcomed in horse racing.”

Blacker said her role’s also evolved over the years, and she feels she’s been given fair opportunities to advance.

“My role has developed over the years as I’ve learned more and gained more experience. For example, I was mostly reporting when I started on air and now I’m hosting, working as an analyst and also as a reporter and content creator. I’m happy to have earned those roles over time through my work, regardless of gender.”

Blacker said she’s also excited about where horse racing is at in 2023, and where it’s going.

“We’ve seen a major shift in the way of transparency and safety the last few years. I think racing is evolving right now for the better and I hope the general public sees that change. There are two engines that drive horse racing—the owners and the bettors. There is also a big change in the way horses are owned with partnerships as the wave of the future.”

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Blacker said those partnerships will let more people participate on the ownership side, and the expansion of sports betting means more can easily participate from that side as well.

“Horse racing is becoming more available to the masses as owners with a stake in the game. And, of course, with sports betting becoming legal across the country and the FanDuel Sportsbook having racing within the app, the opportunity to attract new bettors is booming. More owners and more bettors means a bigger engine to drive the sport forward.”

Blacker said covering the Kentucky Derby is particularly exciting given the worldwide attention paid to the race.

“The Kentucky Derby is the most recognizable and coveted race in our sport. It’s the first question someone asks you when they find out you work in racing: ‘Have you ever been to the Kentucky Derby? Have you ever won the Kentucky Derby?’ And the importance of the Derby is global. Winning the Kentucky Derby is not just a goal for American horsemen, it is a dream and goal being chased by international competitors every year. For example, Godolphin Stables in Dubai, Ballydoyle in Ireland, the Japanese runners competing this year…they all position the Kentucky Derby amongst their top career goals in the sport.”

Blacker has been on-site at Churchill Downs all week, and said the on-location coverage is key to getting a better sense of the competing horses.

“Being able to see the horses up close is invaluable for me personally. I will of course study the replays and all the statistics but seeing a horse physically and watching how they train in the mornings weighs heavily on my decisions when gambling. You can truly see how a horse is feeling through their coat, muscle definition, level of enthusiasm and demeanor and all those little signs influence my opinion of the race.”

She said FanDuel TV is covering the Derby comprehensively, and an advantage they have there is their ability to put extra content and on-demand content in their app.

“Our coverage can be watched on-demand on the Fanduel TV+ app, which is available on connected devices like Roku, Amazon Fire and Apple TV,” she said. “We’ll air news-making interviews, expert analysis and a full schedule of live races. We will have a whole team of respected experts reporting for FanDuel TV, so a lot of our behind the scenes coverage will end up on the app.”

[Top image of Blacker from a 2017 TVG talent profile on YouTube]

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.

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