TABCORP today announced that it achieved record turnover on all of the major race days of the Melbourne Cup Carnival for 2002.

On Melbourne Cup Day, the biggest race day of the year, turnover reached $59.2 million, an increase of 8.2% on turnover for 2001 of $54.8 million. By comparison, across Australian TABs, turnover was up 7.6% in 2002, reaching $191.8 million.

On the Melbourne Cup race itself, the Victorian TAB took $27.2 million, up 2.1%. Across the country, Australians bet $109.7 million on the Melbourne Cup race with the TABs.

"On Cup Day, we experienced excellent growth on all races at Flemington, and the interstate support meetings," said Michael Piggott, Executive General Manager, Wagering.

He cited a number of reasons for the excellent results across Melbourne Cup Carnival, including improvements in the retail network, investments in technology, better and more accessible account betting options including the internet, and a successful campaign encouraging customers to get their bets on early.

"Our strategies over the past few years have meant that we are serving customers better, and this has had a positive impact on our Melbourne Cup Carnival results," said Mr Piggott. "About half of all our TAB agencies, dedicated solely to providing wagering entertainment services to Victorians, have been refurbished recently so that they are more appealing and comfortable, and in many cases, larger. At the same time, one-third of PubTABs have also made improvements. New signage makes TAB outlets highly visible to customers, and better point of sale and information available inside makes it easier for customers to use our products.

"Our Bet Early advertising campaign succeeded in substantially increasing sales the day before Cup Day. In addition, betting increased on-course throughout the Carnival because the racing industry succeeded in attracting large crowds.

"In addition, the excellent program of races throughout the Carnival, and the good media exposure of the champion horses, contributed to increases in betting."

Mr Piggott added that he was pleased that TABCORP's investments in technology have translated into improved service for customers, and that all systems ran very smoothly over the course of the Melbourne Cup Carnival. Customer usage of all Account Sales betting services was very high - voice recognition and touchtone betting, as well as the internet - ran at capacity most days.

Turnover for all major race days of Melbourne Cup Carnival was as follows: