In an Australian racing first, leading online bookmaker Sportsbet.com.au has declared the 2010 Cox Plate (to be run 23/10/2010) a one horse race and has paid out all bets totaling more than $250,000 on the Bart Cummings trained – So You Think. The unprecedented move sees punters collect their winnings an incredible five days before the world’s greatest Weight-for-Age race is run. Sportsbet.com.au CEO Matt Tripp said he regarded So You Think as a certainty. However, given that most people on this planet think there are really very few certainties in life, there is always a chance it won’t win, even if that is only the slimmest of possibilities, it is still a possibility – so why pay?
Sportsbet are paying simply because Matt and his team are better brand builders than their competitors. They have an appetite for big bold gestures that stand out, because they are brilliantly counter intuitive. It is not the first time they have paid out before an event has been completed. They did it earlier in the year with Tiger Woods after the second round in the Australian Open (he won!), and with the Tigers in Aussie Rules, where they paid out $150,000 to punters, after about round 4 of a 22 round competition, who backed them to be wooden spooners (to come last).
