Galway Bay fm newsroom - There was a huge drop in betting figures at this years Galway Races despite similar attendance levels to last years festival.
The biggest drop was on Wednesday - when figures were down by well over half a million euro.
Yesterday was 'Mad Hatters Day' - and it was a strong finish for the final day of this year's Galway Races with a slight increase in attendance.
Across the week, attendance figures were broadly in line with those recorded last year - with 133 thousand people passing through Ballybrit.
That's a marginal decrease of just 5 thousand people compared to last year's festival.
The busiest day was on Friday - with over 30 thousand people passing through the stiles at Ballybrit, and leaving some €2.1 million worth of bets behind them.
However, overall, it was a very challenging year for the bookmakers and the tote - both of which fell significantly short of the figures recorded for 2017.
While bookmakers recorded slight increases on Monday, Saturday and Sunday, they experienced major drops on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
The biggest drop was on Thursday - which saw the bookmakers down by almost half a million euro.
Meanwhile, it was also a particularly challenging year for tote figures - with all seven days showing sharp decreases on last years takings.
The worst day for the tote at Ballybrit was yesterday Sunday - with final figures standing at €456 thousand, a dramatic fall of €260 thousand on figures for the same day last year.
