Scientific Games reports huge 53% uplift in bets through Cheltenham Festival

Last week’s Cheltenham Festival was highly anticipated to generate strong betting volumes, and figures from Scientific Games’ OpenSports platform demonstrate the huge scale of betting activity from the prestigious race meeting.

Record-breaking volumes of bets were processed through the Company’s OpenSports platform across the Cheltenham Festival, with an increase of more than 50% compared to 2020.

The four-day racing spectacular took place behind closed doors due to Covid-19 restrictions and attracted extremely strong levels of betting activity. This was driven by a demand from bettors for entertaining experiences within these challenging times, as well as a surge of punters turning to the online channel with betting shops shut across many regions in Europe.

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The OpenSports platform powers the industry’s leading sportsbook operators, including Flutter Entertainment’s Betfair, Paddy Power and Sky Bet, William Hill, as well as Entain brands Ladbrokes and Coral. With 100% platform stability recorded throughout the event, Scientific Games’ key operating partners enjoyed increased betting levels and offered their customers responsible, seamless user experiences.

Compared to the 2020 event, Scientific Games reports the following across OpenSports:

• 100% platform stability across the whole Festival
• Total bets of close to 70m placed across the U.K.’s leading sportsbook operators, an increase of over 50% on last year
• Total stakes across the festival were up 34% with average stake for singles in all Win & Each Way markets remaining largely consistent per last year at £7.50
• Total account transactions at 470m across the four days were up 44% as compared to last year
• One OpenSports partner operator alone processed a peak of over 34,000 bets per minute

Keith O’Loughlin, SVP Sportsbook, Scientific Games Digital, said: “These figures further demonstrate the power of our platform, with its scalability and reliability once again delivering high-level performance across one of the biggest sporting events. Despite the significant increase in activity, it was very much business as usual as our team and technology coped under the huge demand from bettors.  Our job is to give our operator partners the confidence that they can deliver a great service and grow their business without the worry of system downtime.

“This year’s Festival saw betting behaviour evolve and more players than ever before embrace the online space. The average stake levels indicate the recreational and entertainment value of this racing event and we’re proud of the role OpenSports has played during the Festival in offering such a wide audience a truly entertaining experience.”