Melbourne Cup 2019: Local winner a loss leader for bookies’ bags

Melbourne Cup betting has taken a tumble this year, with TAB recording a 5.9 per cent drop in turnover across the day.

Racing Victoria chief Giles Thompson said he expected a lot of people would have bet on Vow And Declare as it was bred and trained in Australia. Picture: AAP

Melbourne Cup betting has taken a tumble this year, with wagering giant TAB recording a 5.9 per cent drop in turnover across the day and Racing Victoria suspecting that Tuesday’s Australian-bred winner may have impacted on profit margins.

One punter, however, won nearly $800,000 off a single bet after picking the first four through Sportsbet.

Initially, it looked as if the $10 bet would not pay out but a protest over second place that was upheld saw the punter take $793,842.

Another punter who placed a $25,000 bet on winner Vow And Declare with Ladbrokes just hours before the race, when it was paying $13, won $325,000.

The TAB’s turnover on the race was $106m, and $160.7m across all 10 races — down 5.9 per cent on last year.

Tabcorp and BetEasy both said their takings were down this year.

BetEasy lost money on the main race, with chief executive Matt Tripp saying this year’s fall in turnover reflected a longer-term trend.

“Turnover has decreased on each of the major race days in the Melbourne spring carnival, and that has continued on Melbourne Cup Day,” Mr Tripp said.

“There’s been a drop in the number of people having a bet on the major races themselves and this has been enough to drive down overall turnover.

“We’re keen to sit down with Racing Victoria to work out how we can bring these people back.”

Racing Victoria chief Giles Thompson said he expected a lot of people would have bet on Vow And Declare as it was bred and trained in Australia, owned by Australians and ridden by an Australian jockey.

“It was a great race, and I suspect what happened this year is that the bookmakers suffered,” Mr Thompson said.

Tabcorp’s managing director for wagering, Adam Rytenskild, said Mr Thompson’s suspicion was right and punters “took a lot of money off us”.

“We’re also thrilled an Australian horse won the Cup,” he said.

“TAB’s Melbourne Cup activity is a huge operational effort. At peak times, our systems processed 108,000 bets per minute.”

He said more than three million people placed bets through TAB for Tuesday’s races.

Neither Sportsbet nor Ladbrokes would comment on their turnovers from the race.

Sportsbet spokesman Rich Hummerston said at one stage, 35,000 bets a minute were being placed through its systems, the highest rate it has recorded for any horserace.

A Ladbrokes spokesman said it was taking 10,000 bets a minute in the 20 minutes before the Melbourne Cup began.

Bookmakers had warned that their turnover could fall because of an increase in government regulation and taxes at the state level.

Last week, Mr Tripp said a relatively new point-of-consumption tax was expected to cost bookies about $270m annually. Melbourne Racing Club chairman Peter Le Grand said: “The racing industry makes its money off turnover so if that is suffering and profits are down and that keeps going … then it is a disaster for racing.”