World Pool a treat for punters but daily diet still needs work

There was no hiding how pleased those who organised the inaugural World Pool at Royal Ascot were last week.

There was initial delight that the technology behind the commingling of various pools from across the world worked pretty much without a hitch. Admittedly there were complaints on course about how much time it took for dividends to be declared but that did not affect course turnover, which was up, and should be improved upon next year.

The technology facilitated the spectacular increase in money bet into the pools, fuelled by Hong Kong punters, which increased from £17 million in 2018 to £92m last week – a rise of more than 400 per cent.