SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
In collaboration with the Dubai Racing Club, the Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) has confirmed that it will be launching World Pool betting for both the Dubai Super Saturday meeting and the Dubai World Cup meeting at Meydan Racecourse.
The latest expansion of World Pool betting follows on from the launch of World Pool at 2019’s Royal Ascot, which the HKJC revealed had resulted in a 60% increase in turnover.
Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, the HKJC’s Chief Executive Officer, said: “The commingling development in Hong Kong has been an astonishing success.”
“Last year we created a new dimension to commingling with the first global pool at Royal Ascot which enabled people around the world to make use of huge liquidity and led to a 60 per cent increase in turnover.
“We are now applying the same concept to Dubai. As a truly global racing event, Dubai’s Super Saturday and Dubai World Cup meetings attract world class horses, jockeys and trainers. Commingling provides our sport with a golden opportunity to harvest the full potential of global racing and we are delighted to announce these two fixtures as the next destinations on the growing World Pool rota.”
HKJC has been working alongside a number of other racing bodies in order to promote the development of World Pool across a mix of global racing events.
Overseas pari-mutuel wagers placed through partners from Australia, Canada, Europe, Singapore and the United States will be commingled into Hong Kong’s pools directly or via Premier Gateway International (PGI) during the two Dubai race meetings. This will ensure maximum liquidity and stronger opportunities for customers across the globe.
Richard Cheung, the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s Executive Director, Customer and International Business Development, added: “We would like to thank the Dubai Racing Club, PGI, as well as our network of global commingling partners to make this happen.
“It is important to note that unlike Royal Ascot, there is no domestic betting in Dubai to merge with Hong Kong pool. So we are pulling the many different pari-mutuel pools across four continents to Hong Kong and create the World Pool. This will have to be a long term partnership to grow the pool together and 2020 is a great start.”
