A 20% lift in World Pool turnover sounds impressive. Context matters.

The headline doing the rounds is hard to miss: World Pool turnover up 20%.

It’s a figure that has been widely reported and enthusiastically promoted, often framed as proof that the model is flourishing and that Australian racing is reaping the benefits.

On the surface, it sounds like a clear win.

But as is so often the case in wagering economics, topline numbers without context tell only part of the story.

What has been largely absent from the coverage is a simple but critical companion statistic: the number of races covered by World Pool increased by roughly 27% year-on-year. That is a significant expansion of the product. When you factor that in, the reality is far less flattering. On a per-race basis, turnover has actually declined, although it is worth noting that many of the races common to both 2024 and 2025 are higher-turnover events.

That doesn’t mean World Pool is broken. It does mean the 20% figure, presented in isolation, is being oversold.

This is where Australian punters should pause, particularly in the face of some enthusiastic cheerleading from sections of the industry and parts of the media. The narrative being pushed is that World Pool is unequivocally “good for Australia”, full stop. But that conclusion glosses over an issue that matters more to customers than global liquidity headlines: price.

Australian punters are being asked to celebrate a product that, in many cases, comes with higher take-out rates than the alternatives they already have access to. Bigger pools are irrelevant if the cost of participation is worse. Liquidity without value is not a win for the customer, no matter how it is dressed up in marketing.

That reality has already been well canvassed. As outlined in Betsy’s analysis, Can the tote be saved? Jason Scott sounds the alarm, the long-term challenge for Australian wagering isn’t finding more money to bet into pools. It’s ensuring those pools offer competitive returns. On that front, World Pool in Australia still has work to do.

None of this is a criticism of the Hong Kong Jockey Club. Quite the opposite. HKJC deserves enormous credit for creating World Pool, investing in it, and making it work in jurisdictions where pricing structures, governance and customer value are aligned. In those markets, it has done exactly what it set out to do.

The issue is not whether World Pool works globally. It clearly does.

The issue is whether it should be lauded locally, in its current form, as a success for Australian punters. On that question, the evidence is far more mixed than the headlines suggest.

To be fair, there are signs this conversation is finally moving. As reported last year, Betsy understands from one PRA that a deal to reduce World Pool take-out rates in Australia is imminent. If that comes to pass, it would represent a meaningful step forward. At a minimum, Australian punters should expect parity with the take-out rates they are betting into every day.

In time, World Pool could absolutely become a genuine positive for Australian racing and wagering customers alike. If take-out rates are addressed and the product is adapted rather than blindly imported, it has the potential to deliver both liquidity and value.

Until then, Australian punters would be wise to look past the cheerleading and ask the harder question: who is this actually working for right now?