SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
The Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) has announced that, during the Royal Ascot last week, its World Pool broke the record for a single race turnover.
The G1 Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee S last Saturday saw HK$66.2m (£6.6m) bet into it, eclipsing the previous record of HK$66.1m wagered in the 2022 G1 Betfred Derby.
This raceday’s total turnover of HK$323.4m (£32.5m) is the third-highest World Pool day of all time, checking in behind the Friday (HK$351.8m) and Saturday (HK$340.9m) of Royal Ascot in 2022.
Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, CEO of the HKJC, said: “Royal Ascot once again produced exceptional racing and it is clear that international racing fans have embraced the quality and depth of fields across the five days.
“World Pool offers the best international racing for customers across the globe. In the four years since we launched World Pool at Royal Ascot, the Hong Kong Jockey Club has forged – and enhanced – a host of World Pool partnerships around the world and we are delighted at the significant progress achieved so far.”
The other two largest pools of the week were during Friday’s G1 Commonwealth Cup and Tuesday’s G2 Ribblesdale Stakes, with both of these bringing in HK$50.5m (£5.1m).
Total World Pool turnover for Royal Ascot 2023 hit HK$1.5 billion (£154m), which is slightly lower than the HK$1.6 billion wagered a year ago – which was an increase on 2021’s figure of 35%.
Guy Henderson, Chief Executive at Ascot Racecourse, added: “It has been another hugely successful week for World Pool at Royal Ascot and we are thrilled with the level of turnover both on course as we welcomed back a full scale crowd and remotely.
“In my time at Ascot, the World Pool has been one of the most innovative initiatives we have been involved in and these new partnerships have proved hugely beneficial to racing at Ascot and the wider industry.”
The HKJC last week also revealed that it has renewed a five-year World Pool partnership agreement with Ascot Racecourse to continue to promote racing as a global sport.
While the HKJC and Ascot Racecourse initiated the first World Pool partnership in 2019, the renewal agreement, signed at Royal Ascot on 23 June, will now run from 1 July, 2023 until 2028.
