Festival favourites hit bookies hard

THE largest number of winning favourites for almost a decade at the Cheltenham Festival has hit bookmakers hard, with the industry taking an estimated hit of somewhere between €4 million and €10m.

While the big betting companies don’t divulge exactly how they fared — and usually only refer to big meets like Cheltenham and Aintree in their half-year commentaries — market analysts neatly summed up this year’s festival as being “neutral to slightly negative” for the main bookies.

Nine (or 32%) of the races at Cheltenham this year were won by favourites. That was the highest since 2003, when 45% were won, and was well up from 2010’s historic low of 15.4%.

“In terms of the big races, the picture was mixed. The biggest race of the week — the Gold Cup — was won by a 7/2 favourite, as was the Champion Hurdle, which was won by an 11/4 favourite. However, it wasn’t all bad news for the bookies, with favourites failing to place in the first three in 14 races — or 50% of all the races. The high proportion of races won by Irish horses may mean that Paddy Power was more impacted than the UK bookmakers, though this is purely speculation on our part,” said David Jennings of Davy Stockbrokers.

Indeed, most analysts noted that while Cheltenham remains a high point in the racegoer’s calendar, the festival isn’t as important as it used to be for off-course bookies like Paddy Power, Boyle Sports, Ladbrokes and William Hill. “Cheltenham isn’t the game-changer it once was for the bookies,” Mr Jennings added.

Regarding Paddy Power, Gavin Kelleher of Goodbody said: “We believe Cheltenham is of less significance than it has been in the past, due to the evolution of Paddy Power’s model — with increased online gaming exposure, its Australian acquisition, increased exposure to other sports and its growth outside Ireland.”