Over R650 million wagered on World Sports Betting Cape Town Met horse race meeting

Cape Town — An astounding R650 million was bet with the Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) tote on eight of the 12 races at the 2022 World Sports Betting Cape Town Met race meeting at Kenilworth last Saturday.

Cape Town’s premier race day was the first HKJC World Pool event of the year. Races 4 to 11 were televised live in Hong Kong.

TAB Win, Place, Swinger and Quinella pools on these races were co-mingled into the Hong Kong pools, thus affording local horseracing fans the rare opportunity of getting into the world’s biggest tote pools on South African races.

Total gross turnover on the World Pool races was R650.73 million, the fourth-highest total accomplished by a World Pool event to date.

Predictably the WSB Cape Town Met achieved the highest turnover of the eight races with a total of R97.8 million. Less predictable was that this figure was nearly bettered by Race 11, an ordinary merit-rated handicap that was run after midnight Hong Kong time and generated a gross turnover of R95.4 million.

The Quinella (first two in any order) and Swinger (Quinella, place) were the most popular bet types again. The Quinella pools averaged R20.5 million and Swingers R19.4 million.

The biggest single pool was the Quinella on Race 11, which generated more than R26 million.

“South African racing resonates well with customers in Hong Kong and many racing fans globally, and that popularity made the Met day an ideal meeting to include as part of our strategically important World Pool brand hosted in Hong Kong”, said Richard Cheung, Executive Director of The Hong Kong Jockey Club.

Kenilworth Racing Chairperson, Bradley Ralph, said the sold-out 2022 World Sports Betting Cape Town Met was “a spectacular day that provided a boost for industry