Boarman officially crowned Breeders' Cup Betting Challenge winner

Sean Boarman, a 43-year-old native of Kentucky, has been officially declared the winner of the live-money Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge, one of the most lucrative handicapping tournaments in the U.S.

Boarman, who was born and raised in Lexington, amassed 231,238 points, in large part by focusing a large part of his bankroll on a successful win bet on White Abbario in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. His total live-money winnings combined with the grand prize amounted to $642,363, the largest total in the 15-year history of the event.

Boarman was declared the winner after a two-week independent audit of the contest. Breeders’ Cup began requiring the audit in 2018, after two players in the 2017 event were disqualified following an investigation into collusive behavior. One of the entries from the disqualified players in that contest finished ninth.

The BCBC, as it’s known, requires a $2,500 buy-in and a $7,500 live-money bankroll that can be bet in the win, place, show, exacta, trifecta, and daily double pools on any of the 14 Breeders’ Cup races. According to Breeders’ Cup, there were 571 entries in this year’s pool, and live handle generated by tournament bankrolls exceeded $7.76 million, or 5.26 percent of the total money bet on the 14 Breeders’ Cup races this year.

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Second place in this year’s tournament went to Kevan Strom of Niskayuna, N.Y., who earned a total of $489,528. Mike Mulvihill, a resident of Palatine, Ill., finished third, earning a total of $321,610 in live-money and contest winnings (Mulvihill is not the Mike Mulvihill who is the current president of Insight and Analytics at Fox Sports and who has been involved in racing broadcasts in the past, according to Breeders’ Cup).

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