South Africa’s most popular horseracing competition of all time, the Hollywoodbets Punters’ Challenge has created a host of big winners, paying out prize money of over R31,5 million over the past four years.
The groundbreaking challenge reaches a magical millennial milestone this weekend with the 1000th renewal of the rewarding game of fun and excitement that has well and truly become a way of everyday life for thousands of seasoned and new generation punters.
Over 8,3 million free entries by over a million players have started local racedays, Hong Kong and Singapore fixtures, in the hope of finding all the winners on the card in a dream quest to win the all-or-nothing jackpot.
Player Revash was the very first big winner when he banked R2 325 000 in December 2021, finding all the winners on the Hollywoodbets Greyville card.
Interestingly, of the 113 jackpot winners to date, every racecourse countrywide has hosted at least one Hollywoodbets Punters’ Challenge jackpot winner, with Hollywoodbets Kenilworth seemingly the toughest to find, with 8 winners sharing R630 000 on the only winning day at the Southern Suburbs track in April this year.
While each winner has their own story to tell, sixty-something Merewent pensioner Blaikes, who won the Hollywoodbets Punters Challenge bonus jackpot of R1 275 000 with eight straight winners at Hollywoodbets Scottsville in February 2023, was on a bus completely oblivious to the fact that he had won. Blaikes was overcome with emotion, declaring that he would be spending some of his windfall on beautifying his late wife’s grave, and buying himself a new head of hair.
Retired Bloemfontein-based military man Trip2Cairo enjoyed a lifechanging R880 000 just over a fortnight ago, becoming the latest of 17 jackpot winners to enjoy a combined payout of R17 490 000. Trip2Cairo only discovered the wonderful world of horseracing less than a year ago, to show that literally anybody and everybody is capable of winning big.
Sunday’s Hollywoodbets Scottsville fixture, which offers eight races and gets underway at 12h35, will commemorate the 1000th racemeeting to host the Hollywoodbets Punters’ Challenge since the competition was launched in 2020.
Earlier in the day, Kranji starts at 06h30, offering players a double chance for a bumper day.
A key to the Hollywoodbets Punters’ Challenge, beyond finding the winners, is to double your payout prospects by wagering a minimum R50 on the programmatically generated betslip.
For local racemeetings, the value of the all-or-nothing jackpot prize is determined by the number of runners multiplied by R10 000, for all venues.
For example, if there are 103 carded runners and 3 scratchings, then the all-or-nothing prize will be based on the net 100 runners at R10 000 each, giving a value of a cool R1 million as the prize. If you wager the minimum of R50 on the betslip, your payout doubles to R2 million!
For Hong Kong and Singapore race-meetings, the jackpot prize is calculated on the number of races carded.
With 8 or 9 races carded and completed, the jackpot is R125 000 (or R250 000 with a betslip minimum of R50) or with 10 or more races carded and completed, R250 000 (or R500 000 with a betslip minimum of R50).
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.
These payouts are also doubled if the minimum R50 wager on the bet slip is taken!
The Hollywoodbets Punters’ Challenge is very easy to understand and to play.
All one needs 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 one of the ‘quick-pick’ options and take a chance on the universe!
Players receive points depending on where their selection finishes in a race, and how many actual runners there are in a race.
Taking the example of a twelve-horse race, the winner will receive 12 points, second earns 11 points, third 10 points, all the way down to last position with 1 point. In a seven-horse race, the winner will receive 7 points, the runner-up will receive 6 points, and so on.
Bonus points are awarded for winning selections, where the Hollywoodbets Starting Price (SP) for that horse will be added to the points awarded. If the winning horse’s SP is 4/1 for example, then an additional 5 points (4 + 1) will be added to the points earned. In the mentioned twelve-horse race example the winning selection, if starting at 4-1, would have 17 points awarded (12 plus 5 bonus points).
It’s fun to follow your progress on the log throughout the race-meeting by visiting the Hollywoodbets Punters’ Challenge website.
Don’t leave your entry late – the gates close five minutes before the scheduled off of the first race in all centres.
Have a look at the new Hollywoodbets Punters’ Challenge website, and have some side fun by forming a league to compete amongst your friends, work colleagues, or family!
This weekend there are four chances to win in the Hollywoodbets Punters’ Challenge, with the Saturday local double-header of Turffontein and Hollywoodbets Durbanville, while Sunday sees an early start for Kranji, with Hollywoodbets Scottsville off at 12h35.
If you are not in it, you simply cannot win it! Have a super weekend and enjoy the racing.
