Thrilled KZN-based player Dream 333 became the latest big winner in South Africa’s all-time most popular horseracing competition when he scooped the all-or-nothing jackpot prize of R840 000 in the Hollywoodbets Punters’ Challenge at Fairview on Friday.
After three Hollywoodbets Punters’ Challenge players had narrowly missed a dream payday at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth on Tuesday, with their hopes riding on the back of Speed Racer, who was collared late by a determined Bernard Fayd’herbe on Marvel William in the final race, Dream 333 saw a seemingly quiet long weekend at home turn into a potentially lifechanging dream on Friday.
“I can’t believe it. I don’t believe it. I didn’t see all the results today,” a circumspect Dream 333 told the Sporting Post when asked how he felt about being the next big winner after Joyous Jubilee had courageously clung on to a gun-to-tape victory under Raymond Danielson in the last.
The unemployed 52 year old father of four eventually accepted that the call from the Sporting Post was legit, and after going through the full card of results with him, he accepted his windfall with an emotional lilt in his voice.
“I always put number 1 in the first race. Yes, those are my selections. You have no idea what a massive difference this makes in my life,” added the man who has been punting since friends introduced him to the sport of kings around 2008.
“I am a small punter. I once caught a R1 all-on that paid over R1400. Money is tight and I have always kept things tidy,” he added.
As to the origin of his alias Dream 333, he explained that he had picked his daughter up to take her out for a Saturday.
“We arrived at Turffontein at around 08h30. I had exactly R400 on me to entertain her, buy refreshments and lunch, and have a small bet. By the third race I was down to R80 and I told my daughter to pick a horse. She chose a 10-1 shot called Remember Dreams. I stuck R50 on and it won. That turned the day around!”
Then a few years later his late son was on course with him, and a similar situation occurred.
“He chose a horse called Dreamy Times – I think Gunter Wrogemann was riding. It got up at any price to pip Piere Strydom. I only had R10 on the winner, but we were suddenly flush!”
Dream 333 had noticed that both winners chosen by his children had ‘Dream’ in the name.
“I asked my late son why he had chosen that horse, and he said: ‘Daddy, we know you are a dreamer’. Every raceday I scour the cards for horses with Dream in the name. It’s my starting point for all my bets,” he added emotionally.
The 333 signifies his late son’s birth-date of 3 March.
We explained to Dream 333 that he could have doubled his windfall to R1 680 000 had he simply wagered a minimum of R50 on the programmatically generated betslip form.
“I now regret that decision!” he laughed.
As an added incentive to players, to top this, the all-or-nothing prize and the daily must-be-won prize will be doubled on local SA racemeetings for those players who have had a bet on the Punters’ Challenge Bet Slip, to the value of R50 or more, prior to the running of the first race.
The Bet Slip is programmatically generated and all you have to do is indicate an amount of R50 or more that you wish to wager.
The free-to-play Hollywoodbets Punters’ Challenge has created a multitude of winners over 4 years, with the top 20 players on the leaderboard sharing the designated must-be-won daily prize.
It’s been a big year so far for winners in this exciting challenge.
In February, two lucky players, Sketts and EnQ, became the first jackpot winners of 2024 in the Hollywoodbets Punters’ Challenge when they shared the R720 000 jackpot prize by selecting all eight winners on the Turffontein 8 February card.
Then on Saturday 10 February, a record 74 winners shared a payout of R650 000 in the free-to-play competition. Each winner received over R8 700 each.
While Hollywoodbets Punters’ Challenge players pit their wits, skill, and racing knowledge against fellow competitors, the ultimate aim for a big payday, is to select all of the winners on a card as Dream 333 did on Friday.
Hollywoodbets offer the all-or-nothing jackpot prize to the player, or players, who correctly pick all the winners on any race day – and that’s all local race-meetings, as well as Hong Kong and Singapore.
For local racemeetings, the value of the all-or-nothing prize is determined by the number of runners at the race meeting multiplied by R10 000, for all venues.
For example, if there are 88 carded runners and 5 scratchings, then the all-or-nothing prize will be based on 83 runners at R10 000 each, giving a value of R830 000 as the prize!
For Hong Kong and Singapore racemeetings, the jackpot prize is R500 000.
Over and above the premier aim of finding all the winners, daily prize money of R5 000 for each of the scheduled race meetings will be shared by the top 20 players on the points leaderboard at the end of the day.
The winner will be awarded R2 000, with the runner-up R1 000 (earned by player Labans with 7 winners and a 3rd on Friday), and the balance apportioned in terms of the published rules down to the 20th finisher.
These payouts are also doubled if the minimum R50 wager on the bet slip is taken!
The Hollywoodbets Punters’ Challenge is really easy to understand and to play.
All you need is a Hollywoodbets account and the choice is yours to either select one horse in each of the races at the designated race meeting or opt to make use of the ‘quick-pick’ option and take a chance!
There are five great chances to dream and win big this weekend still, between Kranji and Turffontein on Saturday, Sha Tin and Hollywoodbets Greyville on Sunday, and Hollywoodbets Scottsville on Monday.
