When I Am Maximus took a late surge to win the 2026 Grand National, it mirrored the late money placed on the favourite. Bets were piled in on the two-time champion, and some operators were stung.
Following the Grand National, SBC News caught up with Matt Parr, Head of Horse Racing at Amelco, who outlined how the provider of horse racing betting technology kept cool heads during the Aintree festival and proved its credibility as a player in the UK racing market.
SBC: It was a historic jumps season for punters, especially with a 7/1 favourite winning the Grand National. While operators had to bear the result, how did the Amelco platform handle the intensity and liability concentration during the I Am Maximus surge?
Matt Parr: When a 9/2 favourite wins the Grand National, there is quite simply nowhere for a provider to hide. In this industry, we talk a lot about volume, but the National is really about liability concentration.
In that final hour before the off, the market shifted massively. Our job – and the standard any serious racing provider should be held to – is to price every one of those movements accurately. We didn’t have to pull markets or resort to restricting customers to manage the exposure. We kept our partners competitive right up to the tape. The platform held its position, handled the surge and ensured settlement was instant the moment they crossed the line. This is the standard any serious racing provider should be held to. If they can’t handle a Mullins favourite winning the National without flinching, they shouldn’t be in the game.
SBC: Grand National Saturday is considered the ultimate stress test. What does it say about the Amelco infrastructure that it delivered 100% uptime and instant settlement during such a high-volume event?
MP: Performance on a day like that does not happen by accident; it is the product of months of preparation and stress testing. Every parameter in the system is reviewed, and every possible risk scenario is war-gamed long before the first horse arrives at Aintree. When the race goes off and the traffic hits its peak, the platform is supposed to perform.
That is the baseline expectation. Our service is based on decades of trading experience, ensuring that when the industry’s biggest window opens, we deliver. 100% uptime is simply the result of doing the hard yards in the off-season.
SBC: Beyond the payouts, what can you share about the volumes your racing platform handled this year, and how do you ensure operators can stay aggressive when a flood of late money hits the market?
MP: Late money is where you earn your credibility. In the last few minutes before the off on a big race, you’re past the casual bets; it’s the serious, professional money that is moving the market. The real question is whether your platform handles that velocity or goes defensive. By giving our operators a real-time view of the liability picture, we allow them to stay aggressive even under smart volume.
Our automation automatically adjusts parameters, so they aren’t forced into a corner where they have to choose between taking a massive exposure or going on the defensive. It’s a question of whether your platform handles the money or flinches – we passed the test once again, with flying colours.
SBC: Amelco is often cited as having one of the best horse racing teams in the industry. How does that translate into the product your operators are delivered daily?
MP: It comes down to the software being built by people who actually understand the mechanics of a racing book. Our platform is designed to be racing-smart, and it’s built by true market veterans. One of our major USPs is our ability to provide a real-time liability picture while automatically adjusting parameters to keep the operator in the green.
This is anything but an off-the-shelf product; it’s tech that understands the specific pressures of a racing market. It allows our partners to remain aggressive and maintain their position without needing to manually micro-manage every price movement on the screen.
SBC: Many platforms are built by generalist teams, but yours is widely seen as being built by racing experts for racing experts. How does that specialised understanding of the ring give you a competitive edge?
MP: The ring has its own psychology. Professional money moves very differently than recreational money, and if you do not understand that distinction intuitively, you are going to get hurt. A generalist platform applies a generic model and essentially hopes for the best. We know when a market is moving because of informed money versus when it is just a weight of casual bets.
That understanding is embedded directly into the platform’s parameters and risk rules, so operators get a product that behaves intelligently under pressure rather than one that is just technically functional. That level of expertise is genuinely difficult to replicate if you haven’t lived it on the trading floor – and it’s why we’re one of the best in the world at what we do.
SBC: How does the team’s collective experience allow Amelco to handle the specific complexities of racing, such as 32-runner fields at Aintree, more effectively than any other provider?
MP: A 32-runner handicap at Aintree is a completely different proposition to a standard six-runner race on the Flat. If your platform treats them the same way, you are going to have a bad day. The pricing model, the margin structure, and the liability exposure all need specific calibration for a large field where prices are compressed, and a single late withdrawal reshapes the entire market. Our team has handled those races from the inside. That lived experience is built into how we set our parameters and how we respond when things move. You cannot shortcut that expertise, and you certainly can’t learn it from reading a manual.
SBC: While the UK and Ireland remain the heartland of your racing product, you are increasingly expanding your footprint globally. How are you applying your expertise to pricing up markets like US racing?
MP: The fundamentals of good pricing—accuracy, speed, and understanding the liquidity profile of each market—are universal. What changes is the format and the betting behaviour. US racing is a different beast entirely; you have thoroughbreds on dirt, harness racing, and a market where fixed odds is still growing into a space traditionally dominated by the tote.
We are taking the discipline we’ve honed in the UK and applying it to those global structures, ensuring the pricing is as precise in the US as it is at home. While we’re active in various regions, our focus remains on ensuring that fixed-odds expansion is handled with the same precision we apply to the domestic market.
SBC: From a technical and trading perspective, what are the biggest challenges in adapting a product perfected for the UK market for the different requirements of US or international racing?
MP: The primary trading challenge is ensuring your risk parameters are appropriate for each market’s specific liquidity profile. You cannot apply the same overround logic to a maiden at Kempton that you would to a maiden at Nagoya. To handle this, we’ve invested heavily in making the platform configurable at a jurisdictional level.
This ensures the product behaves correctly and profitably regardless of where the race is running or what the local pool looks like. It is about having the technical flexibility to respect local market conditions without compromising on the quality of the price.
SBC: The Flat season requires a different pace and frequency compared to the Jumps. How is the Amelco product optimised for the speed required for the upcoming Classics and Royal Ascot?
MP: Going into the Classics and Royal Ascot, we review our parameters specifically for the Flat profile. We’re looking at tighter race intervals, different field compositions, and a major shift in ante-post money as the season builds.
The Flat is a high-frequency environment, and we ensure the platform is tuned to handle significant volumes on every race without any lag in pricing or suspension. It’s a summer of speed, and we make sure the tech is tuned to match that tempo so our operators can stay open for business throughout the afternoon.
SBC: Looking ahead to the summer, what are the primary USPs for the Amelco horse racing product that set it apart as the best on the market?
MP: It really comes down to three core elements: the team, the data, and the automation. We have a dedicated team of fourteen specialists who price every market with genuine, lived expertise rather than just monitoring screens. That is backed by official data partnerships with the likes of PA Racing, 1st Content, PMU, SIS, RMG, and ARC, which means we are using the best information available rather than derived approximations.
Finally, our operators benefit from all of that expertise and data through high-level automation, meaning they don’t need to manage a massive trading operation themselves. That combination is much harder to build than it sounds, which is why very few platforms actually deliver it in practice.
SBC: Are there any specific new features or innovations we can expect to see this summer that will help operators maximise their performance throughout the Flat season?
MP: In-running pricing automation is a major priority for us right now. In a fast-moving Flat season, you need tighter suspension controls and reliable cash-out during live racing to keep the product engaging. We are also focusing on expanding our derived markets, such as winning distances and race-time products. This provides the punter with more betting opportunities per race without adding any trading overhead for the operator. We’re giving our partners the best tools in the business and letting the tech handle the heavy lifting so they can focus on the customer.