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Melbourne Cup betting sites

IT’S known as the race that stops a nation – the city of Melbourne and the state of Victoria come to a standstill for the five minutes it takes to run the Melbourne Cup.

The Melbourne Cup is one of the world’s richest horse races and draws the best talent from around the globe to compete for the enormous prize money on offer.

The race has seen winners from Australia, Japan, Germany, England and Ireland and routinely draws an incredible audience both on track at Flemington racecourse and on television.

Traditionally Flemington will house close to 100,000 patrons on-course for the world’s most famous staying race, with a global audience of well over 700 million people expected to tune in.

2017 Melbourne Cup odds

How betting on the Melbourne Cup works

Betting on the Melbourne Cup works exactly the same as any other horse race, the key difference being there is a greater interest which means there is much money spent and a fixed odds market that goes up almost instantaneously after the most recent Cup is run and won.

The win market is simply a return on the odds on offer for every dollar you put on. For instance, the 2015 Melbourne Cup winner Protectionist paid $8.50 with Sportsbet fixed odds.

This means punters smart enough to take those odds on the German horse would have received $8.50 for every dollar they invested – one lucky punter put on a 10,000 bet with William Hill fixed odds several weeks before the big race, netting him 85,000 dollars.

The $8.50 was a guaranteed dividend too because it was placed as a fixed odds bet, which means you get that price no matter how much the winning dividend fluctuates from when you placed your wager. The fixed odd market also extends to the place and quinella.

Fixed odds markets can be a lucrative way to place a Melbourne Cup bet, with astute punters able to get much better odds on a horse if they are able to identify a winner well before the race day fields are out.

As previously mentioned, the Melbourne Cup betting is unlike any other race in the world in that fixed odds markets will go up as soon the race has concluded, with typically the horse that took out the race opening as the favourite.

Melbourne Cup history

Every Australian is aware of the Melbourne Cup. Horses like the legendary Phar Lap, who won the 1930 Melbourne Cup, and Makybe Diva (who won three successive Cups) are given the same plaudits as our most famous sportsmen and women. The race is always run on the same day and is a public holiday in Victoria.

At just after 3pm every on the first Tuesday in November Australia stops as the best stayers from Australia and overseas battle it out over 3200 metres. Kids are let out of school early, lagers flow and of course the on-course crowd exceeds 100,000 putting it right among the biggest race meets in the world.

Just how did the Melbourne Cup evolve into such a huge event?

A man by the name of Frederick Standish, who was a member of the Victorian Turf Club, is widely accepted as the man who created the Melbourne Cup, with it first run in 1861. On Thursday, November 7, 17 horses pounded the course for just over £700. It is believed to be one of the healthiest purses for a horse race at this time.

Archer won the inaugural cup and has ever since been a staple at trivia nights around the country, as the great race has grown into something Standish would fail to recognise.

A little known fact about the early days of the cup is the decision to give members of the club two ladies tickets for the Melbourne Cup, the thinking: “where women go, men will follow.” Perhaps this is why the Melbourne Cup has always been inclusive of the fairer sex.