Domestic wagering turnover across the four days of the Melbourne Cup Carnival has broken previous records with an increase of 7.6 per cent from last year.
A total of $724.1 million was wagered across the four days with growth recorded on all days.
Turnover grew 1.9 per cent to $372.8 million on Melbourne Cup Day with 60 per cent of that on the Melbourne Cup itself, recording 223.8 million in domestic wagering.
The opening day, Victoria Derby Day, saw $148.1 million wagered, up 4.7 percent, while the third day, Kennedy Oaks Day, rose 2.1 per cent to 84.3 million.
On final day, 119.9 million was wagered, up 42.8 per cent compared to 2020, which was impacted by a TAB outage, but up 14.2 per cent on 2019.
Turnover on Victoria Derby Day and Melbourne Cup Day set new benchmarks in Hong Kong, whilst Cup Day turnover set a record in the growing United States market, which this year saw the highest ever US audience watching the great race.
Victoria Racing Club Chief Executive Officer Steve Rosich said the record wagering turnover was supported by strong audience figures through the VRC’s media distribution network, which this year reached new audiences in the digital age.
“The VRC was delighted to welcome back over 30,000 racing fans to Flemington this year within government approved parameters, generating more than 6000 event and hospitality jobs through the staging of the Carnival, and we are thrilled to cap that off with 7.6 per cent growth in wagering turnover for Cup Week,” Rosich said.
“More than 1.9 million Australians watched Verry Elleegant charge to a historic win in the Melbourne Cup across Network 10 and 10Play, with audiences across the Racing.com, Sky and TAB platforms pushing the total audience beyond 2.5 million viewers.
“The Cup achieved the biggest live streaming audience for an annual Australia sporting event in history across multiple streaming platforms.
“These results underscore the record engagement with Australia’s number one racing carnival with existing and new domestic and worldwide audiences.”