{"id":46713,"date":"2017-03-13T15:00:10","date_gmt":"2017-03-13T22:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=46713"},"modified":"2017-03-13T16:18:56","modified_gmt":"2017-03-13T23:18:56","slug":"uk-bookies-hope-cheltenham-festival-break-records","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-bookies-hope-cheltenham-festival-break-records\/","title":{"rendered":"UK Bookies Hope Cheltenham Festival Will Break \u201cRight\u201d Kind of Records This Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

UK bookies<\/a> are expecting a record Cheltenham Festival this week, as the country\u2019s biggest horse racing meet gets underway on Tuesday and continues through Friday.<\/p>\n

\"Thistlecrack
Thistlecrack (pictures) is one of a slew of favorites than have been withdrawn from this week\u2019s Cheltenham Festival. That\u2019s likely to make for more favorable results for the bookies than last year. (Image: Rex Features)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The kind of record they\u2019re hoping for, though, will the exact opposite of last year\u2019s, when they suffered record-breaking losses, the \u201cworst in living memory,\u201d according to one. It was so bad it forced Ladbrokes to issue a profit warning to its shareholders.<\/p>\n

An endless string of favorites winning at last year\u2019s festival delivered an estimated \u00a360 million-plus blow to the bookmakers. It\u2019s a loss that they were eager to publicize, of course, and broadcast as evidence they can be beaten, which may well encourage bettors to come back for more this year. \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Digital payment provider Worldpay agrees. It believes bookies will any up to a 60 percent increase in revenue as bettors hope for a repeat of last year.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Record Volume<\/b><\/h2>\n

2016\u2019s hit was magnified by the fact that not only were the sequence of results among the worst ever (for bookmakers, at least), but there were also simply more people betting than ever before, driven by online gambling<\/a>.<\/p>\n

WorldPay reported 62 percent more betting transactions versus the same day two weeks prior. With similar betting volume and more favorable results, bookmakers are on course (no pun intended) to win recoup their losses this year.<\/p>\n

It helps, of course, that this year\u2019s festival is likely to be far less predictable than last year\u2019s, thanks to the withdrawal of a number of favorites, including Thistlecrack, which was strongly fancied for the showpiece Gold Cup event.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cWe took a \u00a320 million bath last year,\u201d Breon Corcoran, CEO of Paddy Power Betfair told the Financial Times this week. \u201cWe like to think it could be a profitable week [this year].\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThe fields are more open and more competitive, and in theory that should\u2009<\/span>.\u2009<\/span>.\u2009<\/span>.\u2009<\/span>favour the bookies,\u201d said William Hill\u2019s brand-new CEO Philip Bowcock.<\/p>\n

Olympics \u201cWithout Usain Bolt\u201d<\/h2>\n

Of course, conversely, the absence of so many favorites could put bettors off. An anonymous \u201csenior betting industry executive\u201d told the FT that \u201cthe festival is missing some stars\u201d and it\u2019s the \u201cequivalent of the last Olympics not having Usain Bolt and Mo Farah running.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ladbrokes, which took one of the biggest hits in 2016, is remaining optimistic, however. \u201cThis year\u2019s Cheltenham Festival is set to smash all bookmaking records, with massive amounts of money set to be gambled on course, online, and in shops across the country,\u201d said company spokewoman Nicola McCready in an official statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year\u2019s festival went down in history as one of the most expensive weeks in living memory for us, so we are praying that we can try and repair some of the damage this year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UK bookies are expecting a record Cheltenham Festival this week, as the country\u2019s biggest horse racing meet gets underway on Tuesday and continues through Friday. The kind of record they\u2019re hoping for, though, will the exact opposite of last year\u2019s, when they suffered record-breaking losses, the \u201cworst in living memory,\u201d according to one. It was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":46714,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,16,1074],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nUK Bookies Hope Cheltenham Festival Will Break the \u201cRight\u201d Kind of Records This Year<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Cheltenham Festival, the UK\u2019s biggest week of horse racing, is expected to yield UK bookies record profits during this year's festival.\u00a0\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-bookies-hope-cheltenham-festival-break-records\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UK Bookies Hope Cheltenham Festival Will Break the \u201cRight\u201d Kind of Records This Year\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Cheltenham Festival, the UK\u2019s biggest week of horse racing, is expected to yield UK bookies record profits during this year's festival.\u00a0\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-bookies-hope-cheltenham-festival-break-records\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-03-13T22:00:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-03-13T23:18:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/JS114643701-thistlecrack-sport-xlarge_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqpvhYCxZ1zyEMRa-WSVMKo_5uy2X3XM10htd1et6sEMA.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"799\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-bookies-hope-cheltenham-festival-break-records\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-bookies-hope-cheltenham-festival-break-records\/\",\"name\":\"UK Bookies Hope Cheltenham Festival Will Break the \u201cRight\u201d Kind of Records This Year\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-bookies-hope-cheltenham-festival-break-records\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-bookies-hope-cheltenham-festival-break-records\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/JS114643701-thistlecrack-sport-xlarge_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqpvhYCxZ1zyEMRa-WSVMKo_5uy2X3XM10htd1et6sEMA.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-03-13T22:00:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-03-13T23:18:56+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77\"},\"description\":\"The Cheltenham Festival, the UK\u2019s biggest week of horse racing, is expected to yield UK bookies record profits during this year's festival.\u00a0\u00a0\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-bookies-hope-cheltenham-festival-break-records\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-bookies-hope-cheltenham-festival-break-records\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-bookies-hope-cheltenham-festival-break-records\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/JS114643701-thistlecrack-sport-xlarge_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqpvhYCxZ1zyEMRa-WSVMKo_5uy2X3XM10htd1et6sEMA.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/JS114643701-thistlecrack-sport-xlarge_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqpvhYCxZ1zyEMRa-WSVMKo_5uy2X3XM10htd1et6sEMA.jpg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":799,\"caption\":\"Thistlecrack (pictures) is one of a slew of favorites than have been withdrawn from this week\u2019s Cheltenham Festival. 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