Social distancing lifted and racecourse entry normalized

The Korea Racing Authority (KRA) said on December 14, 2022 that the lifting of social distancing measures in April 2022 normalized entry to racecourses, recovering sales to 87 percent of the 2019 level¹. KRA chairman Chung Ki-hwan announced the year's results at a meeting in Sejong that day¹.

The authority said it expects to post a net profit of about 100 billion won for the year, which would be its first profit in three years¹.

The authority also said it cut ordinary expenses by 12.8 percent in the second half of the year¹.

The figures cover the whole of the KRA's operations, not racing alone. The report does not break out how much of the sales or profit came from betting turnover, and it does not give attendance numbers or the number of race meetings held in 2022. Those details have not been reported¹.

What it means for players

Racecourse entry in South Korea returned to its pre-pandemic footing from April 2022, after two years in which social distancing rules limited how many people could attend¹. For locals, expats and visitors who bet on Korean horse racing, that means the on-course experience described in the years before 2020 was available again during 2022, rather than the restricted attendance that ran through 2020 and 2021¹.

The recovery is partial. Sales reached 87 percent of the 2019 figure, so the operator was still taking in less than it did before the pandemic¹. The report does not say whether any specific betting products, pools or tracks remained limited, and it does not address cycle racing or motorboat racing, which are run under separate systems¹.

What happens next

The authority said it would prepare measures in 2023 on racing integrity and on raising its public role, and would expand an ESG (environmental, social and governance) committee¹. It also said it would promote customer inflow through non-fungible tokens and a marketing app¹. Chairman Chung said the authority would keep working to lead innovation in the public sector based on the year's results¹.

For background on how Korean racing betting is structured, see Betting on Horse Racing in South Korea and Can I Gamble in South Korea?. For the wider regional picture, see Horse Racing and Betting in Asia.