BR-DGE has reported £51.4m ($66.4m) in sportsbook pay-ins during the 2026 Cheltenham Festival, based on transaction data drawn from UK online sports betting operators using its payment orchestration platform.
The supplier said the figures cover activity across the four-day horseracing event and reflect a sharp increase in betting-related payment traffic compared with the previous week.
According to BR-DGE, customer transaction volumes rose 41% week-on-week, with 2.1 million inbound transactions processed across the festival as customers funded sportsbook accounts and placed wagers.
The data also showed substantial outbound payment activity during the event. A total of 316,000 withdrawals were processed, with a combined value of £30m.
Gold Cup Day accounted for 534,000 betting transactions on its own, with an average deposit value of £30. BR-DGE said average payment throughput across the full event reached 6.4 transactions per second, up 40% from the previous week.
Between 1pm and 7pm, that average rose to 9.4 TPS, representing a 50% week-on-week increase. Peak payment activity across individual days reached as high as 34 TPS.
BR-DGE also said the most commonly used payment methods during the festival were Visa, Mastercard and Apple Pay.
BR-DGE CRO, Jacob Spencer, said: “Online betting operators perform at scale during major sporting events, when transaction volumes increase rapidly and payment performance is put under pressure.”
Spencer added: “During Cheltenham Festival, when betting activity typically concentrates around race start times and peaks like the Gold Cup, it’s imperative that operators can handle those continuous waves of peak moments, without slowing or restricting transactions.”
The figures offer a snapshot of how payment infrastructure is used during one of the busiest periods in the UK horseracing calendar, when betting volumes and withdrawal activity can rise within short time windows around race starts and results.
In related festival coverage, the British Horseracing Authority said it would continue reviewing race start procedures after several disrupted starts at the 2026 meeting, despite changes introduced ahead of this year’s event in consultation with jockeys and organisers, including The Jockey Club.
BR-DGE said Visa, Mastercard and Apple Pay were the three most-used payment methods across the event
