Sportsbet loses massive money after declaring the Melbourne Cup winner BEFORE the race had started  

One of Australia’s leading bookmakers has paid out on two Melbourne Cup runners – after declaring the winner before the race had even started. 

Sportsbet was so confident Incentivise would storm home to win at Flemington on Tuesday that two weeks ago they sensationally paid out $5.6million to punters who backed the red hot favourite. 

But when Verry Elleegant charged past Incentivise at the 300-metre mark and won the race by 3.5 lengths, the online bookmaker was on the hook for a double payout.

The $16.50 chance trained by Chris Waller and ridden by Sydney’s leading jockey James McDonald came out of nowhere to claim the nation’s biggest race, costing Sportsbet an extra $45million.

Communications manager Rich Hummerston laughed off the multi-million dollar promotional blunder. 

‘The punters came for Incentivise, he started as one of the shortest-priced favourites in Melbourne Cup history, and we were all believers,’ he said.

‘But wow! What a performance by Verry Elleegant and what a result for punters.’

It was an expert ride by ace jockey McDonald, who had a difficult task from barrier 18 trying to get the mare relaxed enough to enable her to run out the two miles – a distance at which she was unproven despite her phenomenal record of 10 Group One wins.

He had the mare around midfield through most of the running, getting a nice trail behind the pace, while up front it was Persan who led and Incentivise nicely positioned in second.

Entering the straight, Incentivise – going for an extraordinary tenth straight win – tried to kick clear of the field but Verry Elleegant quickly gathered up the leader and charged past with a furlong to run and won comfortably. 

Waller, who is most famous for training the record-breaking Winx and whose huge stable of horses has established him as Australia’s most successful trainer, ended his frustrating wait for a Melbourne Cup win.

He had 21 entries in the big race prior to today for a meagre return of one placing.

An emotional McDonald, who had two previous placings in the Cup, called Verry Elleegant a ‘superstar’ after guiding the mare to victory.  

‘Thoughts (of winning) went through my mind at the 500m when I saw Incentivise getting shoved along but I knew he would fight,’ McDonald said.

‘There wasn’t a horse that was going to come from behind me, it was just a matter of catching him.’ 

 ‘I love her to bits,’ he said. ‘She’s been so good to me. They can safely say she’s a champion now.’  

It is not the first time the Aussie odds-maker has paid out early.

The betting agency decided to pay out Cameron Smith as the man of the match at half time when the Melbourne Storm went into sheds in the 2020 NRL Grand Final, with the score at 22-0 over the struggling Penrith Panthers.

The 37-year-old skipper was in scintillating form in the opening 40 minutes and scored a pivotal try under the posts just before the break.

He appeared to be a shoo-in for his first Clive Churchill medal until young gun Ryan Papenhuyzen put his stamp on the game scoring an 80-meter try.

Sportsbet were forced to pay out all bets for both Smith and Papenhuyzen, costing the company a cool $5million.

The betting giant did get it right in November 2020 however when they paid $23million in winnings after calling the US Presidential Election for Joe Biden early.