SEPI Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales

• This year around 3.6 M€ have been betted in 35 race meetings, and for the first time since 2007, there is an increase in the average bet per race.
• The turnover for the sale of tickets reaches 465,170€, and the average per race meeting is almost twice that recorded in 2012.
• An average of 3,366 persons attended each race meeting, a figure which shows a 21.7% growth since 2012.
• In 2016 the average number of horses per race, according to the participants’ statement, was of 10.02, a figure which was not reached since 2010.

The Season 2016, which was marked by the celebration of the 75th anniversary of Hipódromo de La Zarzuela, closed with very significant increases in the turnover from betting and for the sale of the admission tickets. In absolute figures, during the 35 racing meetings which took place this year, 117,800 visitors were recorded, 3,595,543€ were betted, and 67,430 admission tickets were sold, with a value of 465,170 €.

Betting in 2016

The data for 2016 confirm the recovery of internal betting, which began to suffer with the financial crisis of 2008, and which experienced a progressive fall up to 2014. During this year of 2016, the average bet in a race meeting reached 102,730€, that is to say, 11.8% more than in 2014, and for the first time since 2008, the average of the money raised in each race stops decreasing, and grows by 2.06% in comparison with 2014. In this way, Hipódromo de La Zarzuela has reached the goal for internal betting set for 2016; overtaking the average of 110,000 € of bets in the horse races on Sundays (spring and autumn).

This change in the trend can also be observed when comparing the autumn season 2015 (an atypical year, in which only eleven race meetings took place) with that for 2016, since in this last year the data for the average betting for race meeting and for race showed a positive growth.

Sale of admission tickets and visitors’ attendance

The turnover for the sale of admission tickets is the figure which records the highest growth during the last few years. In 2016 465,170€ were collected for 67,430 tickets sold, that is, an average of 13,681€ per race meeting, which practically is twice the turnover in 2012.

With regard to the attendance level, Hipódromo de La Zarzuela recorded 117,800 visits during Season 2016, and thus the average number of visitors per race meeting reached 3,366. In comparision with al 2012, the above means an increase of almost 22%, and when the comparison is made with 2014, of an increase of around 17%.

Racing horses competing

The race program for the 75th anniversary promoted the increase in the number of horses which took part in each race, which reached the figure of 10.02 horses per race, thus arresting the decreasing trend in this figure which began in 2011, and which continued continually up to this very year. This figure represents an increase of 7.7% over the figure in the 2014 Season, and 14.4% more than in the incomplete 2015 Season.

However, one of the greatest challenges in the short-term will continue being increasing the number of horses which are kept at Hipódromo de La Zarzuela, and which experienced a heavy reduction as a result of the calling-off of the spring and summer seasons in 2015. The year 2014 was the first which saw an increase in the number of horses kept at the horse racetracks since 2008, and in 2015, as a result of the above mentioned events, there was a fall which, However, according to the latest data available, half of that fall has already been reversed.

About Hipódromo de La Zarzuela

HIPÓDROMO DE LA ZARZUELA is part of Patrimonio Histórico Nacional, is part of Patrimonio Histórico Nacional, and its grandstands are regarded as one of Madrid’s twentieth Century architectural masterpieces. The facility covers a 110-hectare surface with a high ecological value, the equivalent to 110 soccer fields, and it has first-level facilities on a privileged location within the city of Madrid, which means that the horse racetracks constitute the most important green lung of the Spanish capital, together with the historical El Retiro Park. This year, Hipódromo de La Zarzuela celebrates its 75th anniversary. For finding out more about Madrid’s horse racetracks and its 75-year history, click here.

HIPÓDROMO DE LA ZARZUELA belongs to Grupo SEPI, a corporate holding, which is made up by a total of 15 state-owned companies in which it has direct, majority shareholding participations, with a workforce of more than 73,000 professionals in 2015; the Spanish state-owned television and radio corporation, Corporación Radiotelevisión Española, which is attached to SEPI, and one public foundation. Equally, SEPI has direct minority shareholdings in another nine companies, and indirect ones in more than another one hundred companies