Grand National sees record online sports betting in UK

With betting shops closed until two days after the race, the Grand National drew record numbers of online wagers.

UK.- Britain’s most famous horse race, the Grand National, which took place over the weekend at Aintree Racecourse near Liverpool, attracted a record number of online wagers as betting shops were still closed. Betting shops in England could only reopen from Monday.

Paddy Power and Betfair owner Flutter Entertainment has estimated that more than £100m was bet on the race across the industry.

A Flutter spokeswoman said this represented a better performance than in 2019. In 2020 the race was suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to Dominic Grounsell, heads of sports brands at Entain, the company received bets from 150,000 customers on their platforms.

He said: “This year’s Grand National event saw record-breaking betting volumes for our UK brands and huge customer excitement in line with the thrilling outcome,”

888, a purely online player, said that for 888Sport, the event was the “biggest race we have ever had, with three times the bets taken in 2019 from twice as many customers”.

At odds of 11-1, Irish jockey Rachael Blackmore won the Grand National’s main event on Minella Times, becoming the first female jockey to triumph in the race, which began in 1839.

A William Hill spokesman said: “The problem is that if we have a bad result, we don’t see the money coming back as for many it is their one bet of the year. This year was good and we did well considering we saw the first-ever female winner.”