Oops! Australia Horse Race Betting awards $241k on Accidental Bet

The Melbourne Cup is known throughout Australia as ‘The Race That Stops a Nation‘, and for good reason. Aussies are known for their enthusiasm for gambling, and this annual event draws more wagers than anything else – so many it’s been declared a national holiday in Victoria. Mobile sportsbook operator Sportsbet Australia was anticipating $25 million in wagers yesterday, while TAB saw horse race betting peak at 3,000 bets per second.

Almandin skirts by Heartbreak City to win 2016 Melbourne Cup

One of those Melbourne Cup wagers paid out an incredible $241,000. Not incredible because the amount was so high, but because the punter didn’t even mean to make the wager – a long-shot Superfecta bet – in the first place.

Accidental Wager, Unlikely Winner

27 year old Josh Webber is a former mechanic who took over the ownership of the Loosefoot Saloon Bar in Wundowie, WA in 2014. He’s your average hard working Joe, and like most, placed a few bets on the Melbourne through the mobile sportsbook app.

Following a distinct pattern among locals, the majority of Webber’s money was placed on Who Shot Thebarman. SportsBet Australia made a killing off that horse’s favor when he came in 5^th. But Webber said he likes to try a few smaller punts on box bets, and that’s what he was trying to do when he accidentally placed a $10 Superfecta.

Instead of checking the ‘Box’ bet that would have turned his 17-13-6-23 into an Exacta Box, Webber said he must have forgotten to click that selection. So instead, it became a Superfecta bet that those horses would cross the finish line first, in that exact order.

As the pub owner watched the Melbourne Cup play out from behind his bar, he had no idea just how lucky he was when the race ended. As he loaded up the mobile sportsbook app on his phone, noting that “it took a while to load”, he told reporters, “I went through my pending bets and it didn’t say any were winners.”

However, when he glanced at his account balance, he was shocked to find it held nearly a quarter of a million dollars.

“I thought I had them boxed,” Webber explained his slack-jawed surprise, “but with the odds I think it must have been in order. There was no checking the form or anything. It was just a stab in the dark.”

The young pub owner plans to share in his horse race betting wealth by treating his employees to a grand Christmas party. The rest of the money will go back into his bar, with the first item on the agenda being the addition of an in-house TAB.

Biggest Horse Race Betting Day In History

SportsBet Australia was anticipating record action on this year’s race, the 156^th running of the Melbourne Cup. After taking $18 million in bets on last’s years race, the mobile sportsbook app expected to pull in $25 million on Tuesday’s race.

Australia’s largest betting retailer, TAB, generated a record $100 million in wagers yesterday, and that was on the big race alone. The agency is projecting a $400 million haul over the 4-day event.

Congratulations also go out to Kerrin McEvoy, Lloyd Williams, and Rob Hickmott, the jockey, owner and trainer (respectively) of Almandin, winner of the $6.2 million 2016 Emarites Melbourne Cup.