HK Jockey Club combats illegal bookmakers

The club continues to design initiatives to stay competitive ahead of illegal gambling.

Hong Kong.- The Hong Kong Jockey Club has launched an initiative to combat illegal bookmakers who offer discounts on quinella bets.

To keep legal gambling competitive, they have designed new rules that will be in place from next season.

In the new scheme, punters who have a losing bet amounting to HK$10,000 or more on the quinella or quinella place pools will receive 12 per cent back, up from 10 per cent, SCMP reports.

The changes will mean much to small bettors but will make a difference in the case of major clients the Jockey Club wants to retain.

The Jockey Club calculates that this top 20 per cent of customers provides 80 per cent of turnover.

They also unveiled specifics about the relaunch of the “forecast” for next season. This bet type requires punters to select the first and second horses in the correct order in a race. The forecast will be merged with the trio to increase pool liquidity, SCMP said.

The takeout rate will be set at 19.5 per cent, meaning the trio take out rate will drop by 5.5 percentage points from 25 per cent to provide more value to customers.

Betting turnover has bounced back strongly in recent weeks after the Covid-19 crisis. On Wednesday night it was up by HK$186 million in comparison with a comparable meeting last year.