There is HUGE excitement about the major horse racing, entertainment and fashion event Hollywoodbets Durban July, as indications indicate that it is expected to bring in approximately R1 billion into the Durban economy this year.
This event, which will be accompanied by a sum of R10 million in prize money for horses, is expected to attract about 45 000 spectators, which is expected to bring in more than R840 million last year and R690 million in 2024.
Hollywood Sportbook Group’s communications manager, Mr. Devin Heffer, said that they are very hopeful that this year’s event will be successful and will help to play a major and important role in the economy of the city and KwaZulu-Natal as a whole.
“We are happy that since we started participating in this event in 2019, we were able to stabilize this event, which was faced with many financial problems, especially because when we just entered, there was the problem of the virus, COVID-19 in 2020, which greatly disrupted our performance, so we are happy to be stable like this,” said Heffer.
Continuing, he said that a lot of money has been invested to help this event regain its dignity, including repairing the infrastructure of Greyville Racecourse, Scottsville, Kenilworth, Summerveld, Durbanville and another stadium in Cape Town – which are used to prepare this event.
“The way we are growing and the increase in donors who are always open to cooperate with us has helped a lot to put us where we are, especially last year and in 2024, when there were many different organizations that took the opportunity to work with us,” he said.
He said that one of the things that always encourages them to focus on this program fully and completely is their interest in creating job opportunities beyond the event as currently the horse competition alone is helping to create more than 60,000 job opportunities across the country including jockeys, trainers, and others who do related work.