£725,000 - Star Sports report major bets on Energumene in Clarence House

A year-long joust between Star Sports and a big-staking fan of Energumene turned in the bookmaker’s favour at Cheltenham on Saturday after two bets totalling £725,000 were sunk when the nine-year-old could only manage third in the Grade 1 Clarence House Chase.

In last year’s Clarence House, Brighton-based Star Sports laid an unnamed punter a single bet of £360,000 at 6-4 about Energumene to defeat Shishkin, with the Willie Mullins-trained star coming off second best in a titanic tussle up the Ascot straight.

However, the tables were turned at the Cheltenham Festival when a bet of £150,000 on Energumene at 100-30 in the Queen Mother Champion Chase cost Star Sports £500,000.

The bookmaker squared up again with a bettor on Saturday, accepting bets of £350,000 at 4-7 and £375,000 at 8-15 on Energumene, with speculation that the figure behind the six-figure stakes was the horse’s owner Tony Bloom, the acclaimed gambler behind sports data specialists starlizard and the owner of Premier League football club Brighton & Hove Albion.

While not divulging the figure behind the bets, owner of Star Sports Ben Keith said on Sunday: “We play clients over the year and wish no horse ill. It doesn’t really make any difference to us on individual races, there are many big bets. We reported it, though, as it was a high-profile race.”

Star Sports had flagged up on social media on Saturday how it stood to lose £400,000 if Energumene triumphed in the rearranged Clarence House, and Dave Jolly, the bookmaker’s head of trading, said the organisation was also eager to lay bets where possible.

“It was taken through the office and we often lay this level of bet, we’ve had similar sized bets before and similar bets on Energumene as well,” Jolly said on Sunday. “We don’t often publicise these bets, we lay, but it was a high-profile horse in a high-profile race and we’ll always talk to the customer first to make sure they don’t have any problem with us doing so.

Ben Keith: "It was a high-profile race"Credit: Steve Nash

“We always look to accept these bets and it was a bit of a different race after the horse ballooned the first. He looked to me like he went through the race well and then got tired before he made the mistake at the last – it looked over for him before he made that error.

“We have the Cheltenham Festival not too far away so we wouldn’t be surprised if there were more sizable bets made during that week.”

Jolly outlined that volumes of trade had been positive with Star Sports through the winter, despite concerns over field sizes and uncompetitive races, while affordability checks were not impinging too deeply on levels of trade.

“We have to protect the customer in what we do and we work with the Gambling Commission in terms of what’s needed,” Jolly said. “Obviously if someone is putting bets on of this size then we would have to be sure they can afford to do so and they are aware of what they are doing, and we have a prior relationship with this customer.”

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