By 
After a disastrous 2021 for the horseracing calendar, Flutter Entertainment’s three flagship brands have reported record bets after a successful return of the Cheltenham Festival in 2022.
35,000 Gold Cup Bets per Minute
Paddy Power, Betfair, and Sky Bet recorded large quantities of bets following the four-day event a couple of weeks ago. According to Flutter, an average of 35,000 bets were made per minute in the build-up to the esteemed Gold Cup race, the highlight of the event.After Cheltenham 2021 was cancelled due to restrictions with the pandemic, many betting companies along with the horse racing industry struggled, the results of the 2022 festival will come with welcome relief for many, including the 280,000 attendees over the four-day period.Flutter’s chief trading officer Dominic Crosthwaite said, “While Flutter’s business continues to change at pace, Cheltenham remains one of the most anticipated sporting events of the year and a great opportunity for our UK brands to showcase their leading product and customer offers.“It may have been a volatile week for the bookmakers; however, we are very pleased with our ability to seamlessly execute around 40 million bets over the course of four days, which is a testament to the good work and capabilities of our risk, trading and technology team.”
Big Winners
Although stakes were high, the bookmakers had a fair few big winners Sky Bet paid over £5million, Paddy Power paid out approximately £2.5m as the first female jockey Rachel Blackmore took the top spot in the Gold Cup.Another lucky Sky Bet punter placed an accumulator bet of £3.50 and won a staggering £35,000. The ITV7 predictor competition saw two lucky winners share a combined £600,000 after correctly selecting all seven winners on the final day of the races.After such large payouts, Flutter did see a respite as one million punters took a chance on Shishkin to win the Queen Mother Champion Chase, but the favourite failed to finish the race.