Scientific Games Corp. announced that its OpenSports sportsbook platform, produced by the SG Digital division, processed a record number of account transactions at this year’s Cheltenham Festival.
The Cheltenham Festival, an annual four-day event in the National Hunt race calendar in the United Kingdom, features several high-profile horse races. The festival includes 11 grade-one races and culminates with the Gold Cup race. The festival often sees total wager in excess of £250 million.
This year, the OpenSports platform recorded wagers exceeding last year of 53 percent. “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,” commented Keith O’Loughlin, senior vice president, sportsbook at SG Digital.
“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 behavior 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.”
The upsurge has been attributed to a “demand from bettors for entertainment experiences” during Covid-19 lockdowns, as well as a general boost due to closures of retail betting venues.
