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>\nOlympics \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":"\n
UK Bookies Hope Cheltenham Festival Will Break the \u201cRight\u201d Kind of Records This Year<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n