Hong Kong Jockey Club handles $15.8 billion in 2019-20 season

Total handle generated by the Hong Kong Jockey Club over its recently concluded racing year was $15.8 billion, according to the HKJC, which administers all aspects of racing and betting in the Chinese province. The annual total was the third-highest posted by the HKJC.

The total handle figure includes money bet domestically and overseas on the HKJC signal, along with money bet by HKJC customers on foreign races. The HKJC conducted 87 race cards this year, one less than the previous racing season, for a total of 828 races. It imported 164 races for simulcast betting.

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The total handle figure this racing season was 2.6 percent less than the same figure during the previous season, according to the HKJC, a decline that officials for the agency attributed to impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the shutdown or reduced operating capacity of many of its OTBs beginning in February, and the closure of its racetracks to spectators beginning at the same time. Hong Kong also was wracked by anti-government protests this year that led to the cancellation of one race card.

In a press release, the HKJC said that total commingled handle on its races was up 25.3 percent compared to last year, an indication that the Jockey Club’s efforts to expand the reach of its simulcast signal has paid off.

“Commingling continues to be a huge growth area” for the HKJC, said Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, the HKJC’s chief executive officer.

The HKJC’s signal is now widely available in most countries in the Pacific Rim and in the United States, where the signal occupies a poor time slot but can still attract money due to large fields and the high liquidity of the pools.

The HKJC also has continued to relax restrictions on the number of simulcast signals it imports into the country, and Engelbrecht-Bresges noted that the HKJC was “pleased with how much interest our customers have in our simulcast programs from the leading race meetings around the world.”