Wagering for Lexus Melbourne Cup Day attracted a turnover of $372.8 million, up 1.9 per cent, with almost 60 cents of every dollar wagered for the day being on ‘the race that stops a nation’™, which recorded $223.8 million turnover in domestic wagering.
Penfolds Victoria Derby Day recorded a significant lift in turnover to $148.1 million, up 4.7 per cent, including an 11.2 per cent increase on the feature race.
Kennedy Oaks Day – the only race day during the Carnival to be held on a mid-week working day – achieved a turnover of $84.3 million, up 2.1 per cent, whilst the biggest jump in wagering was on Paramount+ Stakes Day with turnover of $118.9 million, up 42.8 per cent compared to 2020 – a year impacted by a TAB outage – and 14.2 per cent up on 2019.
Wagering turnover on Penfolds Victoria Derby Day and Lexus Melbourne Cup Day set new benchmarks in Hong Kong, whilst Cup Day turnover set a record for the growing United States market, which this year saw the highest ever US audience watching our great race. The VRC looks forward to receiving full global wagering data in the weeks ahead.
Victoria Racing Club (VRC) CEO Steve Rosich said the record wagering turnover was well supported by strong audience figures for the Carnival through the VRC’s successful media distribution network, which this year reached new audiences by taking a giant leap forward 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 6,000 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,” Mr Rosich said.
“More than 1.9 million Australians watched Verry Elleegant charge to a historic win in the Lexus 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 with 652,000 unique users, and this year entered the digital age through our partnership with ZED Run.
“These results underscore the record engagement with Australia’s number one racing carnival with existing and new domestic and worldwide audiences.”
