One of Australia’s most influential punters in 2017 is undoubtedly Sean Bartholomew. Sean is the brother of Kingsley and has been a mainstay on the Sydney betting circuit for decades now.
The former owner of racingodds.com.au now plies his trade as a professional punter with his operation based in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs.
Unlike his brother Kingsley, Sean is known as a stats or analytical punter that is more than happy to back something at $3 and then lay it going back the other way at $2.50.
With Sean no longer running racingodds.com.au (sold to Sportsbet in 2009) he maintains a relatively low profile while he and his team refine their betting model and ‘bet up’ all across the Australian racing scene.
In his own words, Sean only gets nervous when has $100,000 or more on a horse!
“Anything less and I’m pretty calm,’’ Bartholomew said.
“But it is all about keeping to the strategy I’ve set out for the day.
“I remember I backed Makybe Diva when she won her third Melbourne Cup (2005). I won $1 million on her but within a couple of minutes I was concentrating on trying to win $2000 on the next in Adelaide.’’
Sean revealed in a 2014 column with the Daily Telegraph.
In that same article Sean also revealed a bad beat or two from the past few Melbourne Cups.
“Makybe Diva is the last Cup winner I’ve backed,’’ he said.
“I’ve backed the second horse in the Melbourne Cup the last five years straight.
“The year that Red Cadeaux was just beaten by Dunaden (2011) cost me $1.5 million.’’
Sean was very bullish in ruling out Caulfield Cup winning mare Jameka as a chance in last years Melbourne Cup, revealing at the Call Of The Card
“The massive unders I think was Jameka and I think she is a true 50-1 chance and I don’t think it will run a place,” he said.
“It just doesn’t line up well and I can’t justify with the runs that she has had for Jameka to be a $9 chance.”
Sean’s Cup drought was broken in 2016 when he along with a large group of sharp punters backed Almandin.
Veteran bookie Col Tidy revealed in 2006 that Sean was now one of the biggest punters in Australia.
“In Sean’s case, it is hard to anticipate the extent of his operation because he does the bulk of his betting away from the track. He will go along the rails and back a horse to win $10,000 with every bookie, yet the bulk of his business is away – the corporate bookmakers. Hard to estimate how big he is – he is the biggest at the track, but that is still small [compared] to his off-track business.”
“Hard to estimate how big he is – he is the biggest at the track, but that is still small [compared] to his off-track business.”
Where does a Punting Star like Sean choose to live you might ask?
Well in 2013 he and his wife Tracey purchased a house in Vaucluse (Sydney, NSW) for a whopping $8.8 million!
Sean’s longevity on the Australian Horse Racing wagering scene is a credit to him and the smart people he has around him.
With Minimum Bet Laws now in place in NSW, VIC and QLD Sean still has plenty of avenues to get set for a bet and continue to turnover significant amounts of money.
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**Recently this video surfaced of Sean in his younger years with brother Kingsley in the Sydney betting scene
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