HKJC's betting turnover up 3pc on racing tourism boom

The Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) on Thursday reported that its betting turnover rose more than three percent in the latest racing season, as a Year of the Horse tourism boom helped lift growth.

In a statement, the club noted that its total racing wagering turnover for the 2025-26 season reached HK$143.31 billion, up 3.2 percent compared to the preceding season.

"This marks an encouraging return to growth, reflecting the success of strategies introduced last year amid a range of challenges," the club said in a statement.

It added that the increases were mainly driven by improved field sizes – the number of horses participating in a race – while the Year of the Horse has also helped send the club to record its best-ever year for horse-racing tourism.

In total, the club welcomed a record 401,259 visits from the mainland and overseas tourists at its two local racecourses during the season, more than double the 195,768 visits seen in the 2024-25 season.

The latest number also marked an over fourfold jump compared to the 93,000 visits in the 2023-24 season – before Chief Executive John Lee first promoted "horse-racing tourism" in his 2024 policy address.

"Racing tourism is already a top driver of sports tourism and an important pillar of Hong Kong’s tourism development," said Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, the club's chief executive.

"In collaboration with our partners in Hong Kong, overseas and the mainland we look forward to welcoming many more tourists to our racecourses,” he said.

Separately, the club noted that its races in Hong Kong has attracted a record commingling turnover of HK$34.4 billion during the period, representing a rise of 8.3 percent compared to the 2024-25 season.

In horse racing, commingling refers to the process of combining betting pools from different regions and betting operators into a single, massive, unified shared pool.

The HKJC also noted that the commingling turnover was especially high during the Chinese New Year Raceday in February, reaching HK$523.56 million to set a new record for a single race meeting.

That also marked the second year in a row that such turnover surpassed the HK$500 million mark, it added.

Edited by Aaron Tam ...