Bookmakers lick wounds after ‘Worst Ever Cheltenham’

As Cheltenham Festival organisers clean the stands and pull-down the hospitality tents, UK and Irish bookmakers have left this year’s racing spectacle bruised and battered.

Returning to their offices, bookmakers will have to fork out an expensive festival tab of + £60 million as punters cashed in on multiple favourites.

Suffering a severe post-festival come-down, nearly all bookmaker PR teams have labelled Cheltenham 2016 as the ‘Worst Ever Cheltenham Festival’.

Cheltenham’s packed four-day schedule saw little respite for bookmakers, as the festival saw nine outright favourites’ win easy cash-ins for punters.

Thursday Cheltenham race action would dish out a colossal blow to the UK and Irish bookmakers as favourites Vautour and Thistlecrack won the Ryanair Chase and World Hurdles.

Entering Friday’s schedule, racing news sources reported that UK bookmakers were already between £30-£40 million down on Cheltenham 2016.

Cheltenham’s showpiece Gold Cup showed no remorse, as heavily backed favourite Don Cossack would land a further uppercut on bloodied bookmakers faces, who by this point had thrown the towel-in declaring victory for racing punters.

The conclusion of Cheltenham 2016 sees the UK bookmakers suffer compounding back to back industry-wide losses, as in 2015 the sector recorded combined losses of £50 million.