World's biggest punter is Zeljko Ranogajec - and he's an Australian

NICKNAMED the Loch Ness Monster, meet Australia's most mysterious and elusive gambler.

SOME call him the "Loch Ness Monster" because of his rare public sightings. Casinos have dubbed him "The Joker".

High-profile racing industry figures say he is the biggest punter not only in Australia but in the world.

Meet Australia's most mysterious and elusive gambling figure: Zeljko Ranogajec, the man acknowledged even by sources close to the TAB to be, by some margin, its largest punter.

Those who know him well describe him as just a normal bloke and one relative says: "If you met him on the street, you would never think he's rich."

Others describe him similarly as "polite" and "unassuming": descriptions that matched his demeanour when The Daily Telegraphfinally caught up with him this week.

But the size of Mr Ranogajec's betting is far from ordinary. It is believed he accounts for between 6 and 8 per cent of Tabcorp's $10 billion Australian betting turnover - or between $600-800 million - and bets tens of millions more with local bookmakers.

But that is just the start. Once the overseas betting turnover of his 24-hour, seven-day-a-week operation is taken into account, his total annual betting spend globally is believed to be well over $1 billion.

One of Australia's most senior racing figures says Mr Ranogajec, 48, is truly a global punter, adding: "He goes wherever he can get set late with big bets . . . that means countries like Japan, England, Hong Kong, New Zealand and America."

Other sources say he has also been known to bet anywhere from France to Canada and Russia. Intriguingly, part of his operation takes up a large portion of the top floor of the NSW headquarters of Tabcorp, the organisation with which he bets hundreds of millions a year. 

Industry talk has him employing anything from 30 to more than 100 staff just to analyse form.

The operation has generated plenty of wealth. One relative of Mr Ranogajec from his father's side, who asked not to be named, told us: "I heard just maybe two or three months ago that he's a multi-billionaire."

Yet he has never been mentioned on any Australian rich list - because the secrecy around his operations means no one is able to estimate his exact wealth.

But the man himself says the talk about the magnitude of his betting and wealth is all just a big exaggeration.

When asked if he was the world's biggest punter, he said: "I believe that's absolutely untrue."

But in Australia and overseas, any number of racing websites, industry analysts and books indicate he is indeed a global betting giant.

The betting website PuntingAce.com, for example, nominates him as "most likely" the world's biggest punter. One book, Living And Learning With The World's Biggest Punters, goes further, dubbing Mr Ranogajec "the biggest punter the world has ever seen or [is] likely to see".

Read more at The Daily Telegraph.

The Ranogajec way to win

* He hires an army of analysts to conduct computer and video analysis of horse racing and other gambling activities. Betting markets anywhere in the world are selected based on large pools where his team can bet unlimited amounts at the last minute

* For horse racing, numerous factors are taken into account before a decision is made on what to back. Horses are divided into two groups: those who can't run a place, and those who can

* Horses are either eliminated or given a weighting based on their odds. His "value pick" system is geared towards looking for horses that are over the odds based on their percentage chance of winning

* Computers linked to the tote allow his team to bet late, preventing average punters from following his bets

* He is believed to operate on low single digit profit margins