SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
The opening day of this year’s Cheltenham Festival saw a £10m hammering of bookmakers across the industry, but Star Sports has revealed that the second day was more favourable.
Star Sports spokesman Jamie Loughead said: “We took a terrible beating on the first day, we laid one long-standing client £220k on Douvan and we lost in excess of ¼ of a million on others in the Mullins treble. But we came back today keen to take on the favourites and we’ve been very fortunate.”
He added: “Yorkhill’s win in the first race was painful for us, after we laid a number of 5-figure bets at 3/1. But since then we’ve had a run of fantastic results- the best being Sprinter Sacred turning over Un De Sceaux. We laid one punter Un De Sceaux £135k at 8/11 moments before the off, which certainly confirms our owner Ben Keith’s status as a genuine layer.”
On the first day William Hill named Willie Mullins as the man responsible for the bookies’ bashing.
Irish trainer Mullins enjoyed three winners as the biggest race meet of the year, which saw a record first day attendance of 67,770, got underway. Many punters had backed the treble and Star Sports was one bookmaker which paid out heavily.
William Hill Spokesman Jon Ivan-Duke said: “We were lulled in to a false sense of security as the first Mullins hotpot was overturned, but we were made to suffer with the other three. It’s Punters 1 – Bookies Nil.”
It could have been notably worse however as Min was beaten in to second place in the first race of the Festival. This saved bookmakers from what would have been an even bigger blow to the tune of around £50m.
Loughead explained how he’s optimistic that Star Sports will be up before the week is out.
He said: “Unlike the big high street firms we don’t have to worry about our shareholders and avoid big wagers, our owner Ben Keith thrives on the pressure of going toe-to-toe with the big players and leading the betting ring. Two days in to Cheltenham we’re still solid 6-figures behind – but we’ve got two more days to go and we’ve got momentum now. Game on.”
