Has anyone heard of this guy? I found this while looking at a different Aussie article online.
SOME call him the "Loch Ness Monster" because of his rare public sightings. Casinos have dubbed him "The Joker".
High-profile racing industry figures say he is the biggest punter not only in Australia, but the world.
Meet Australia's most mysterious gambling figure: Zeljko Ranogajec, the man acknowledged by sources close to the TAB to be, by some margin, its most prolific gambler.
The size of Mr Ranogajec's betting is extraordinary. It is believed he accounts for 6-8 per cent of Tabcorp's $10 billion Australian betting turnover – or $600-800 million – and bets tens of millions more with local bookmakers.
Once the overseas betting turnover of his 24-hour, seven-day operation is taken into account, his total annual betting spend globally is believed to be well over $1 billion.
Intriguingly, part of his operation takes up a large portion of the top floor of the Sydney headquarters of Tabcorp: the organisation he bets hundreds of millions a year with. He is also believed have office space in the Fox Sports building in Pyrmont, and other premises overseas. Industry talk has him employing 30 to more than 100 staff just to analyse form.
The operation has generated plenty of wealth, yet he has never been mentioned on any Australian rich list.
According to the man himself, the talk about the magnitude of his betting and wealth is just an exaggeration.
But in Australia and overseas, any number of racing websites, industry analysts and books indicate he is a global betting giant.
The 48-year-old has come a long way from being kicked out of Wrest Point Casino in the 1980s as a highly successful young mathematics whiz-kid beating the Hobart casino at blackjack by keeping track of each card played (not that there is anything illegal about that).
He met his wife and first love Shelley Wilson while she was working there.
With his real career as a punter beckoning, he dropped out of university studies in the mid-1980s.
Meanwhile, his skills as a blackjack player led to him being feared by casinos around the world. His business was "politely declined" at first Wrest Point, and ultimately Jupiters Casino on the Gold Coast in the mid-1980s.
He turned his attention to horse racing, as well as games such as Keno, winning a then-world record $7.5 million jackpot in 1994.
But it is in horse racing where Mr Ranogajec has built his fortune, through a combination of betting massive amounts on small margins, generous rebates from many totes (including Tabcorp), and a highly sophisticated betting system.
Those in the know say the key to Mr Ranogajec's betting is chasing liquidity. He and his associates looks for large betting pools awash with "mug punter" money that makes the pool as big as possible.
SBR Top-Rated Sportsbooks
World's largest professional gambler?
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