Floating the horseracing odds

Marketers at the online and land UK betting group William Hill plc came up with a novel promotional idea this week, giving racing fans a close encounter with the moon at the Cheltenham horse racing festival….well, not the real moon, but a super-sized inflatable balloon illuminated with the best Festival betting odds on offer to punters.

As the sun went down on the famous old racecourse, the William Hill Cheltenham Moon rose and shone brightly across the turf as punters left after an exciting day’s racing on the first day of one of the sport’s landmark events.

William Hill displayed its standout bet of the day on its brightly illuminated Moon. The initiative appears to have been very successful, with the bookie reporting that its top odds sold out within 40 minutes.

The William Hill Moon spans 10m x 10m – the equivalent in length to a double-decker London bus. It will be flying high above the racecourse for the duration of the festival, a company spokesman said.

“This is the first time such a large helium filled sphere has been deployed in the UK. It needs 520 m3 of helium to fill it each day and is made out of 350 m2 metres of a specially made polyester-based fabric,” he said. “The balloon comes from Grenoble in France and weighs in at 175kg uninflated. The lighting system used to illuminate it is equivalent to 40,000 security lamps.”

The promo is being backed by a Twitter push encouraging tweeters who see the imitation moon to post a picture and qualify for a chance to win a GBP20 free mobile bet.

Cheltenham Festival runs until Friday 15th March 2013.

Related and similar