[user104658]

Oh also to add some financial stats; the VAST majority of Grand Nationals are break-even or loss for bookmakers. I think we made a small profit this year due to there not being many large-price places but most years we pay out everything we take on the Saturday by the Monday and the race itself usually is a small loss, made up for by increased footfall on other products (machines and football, as people who are in for the GN bet on other things at the same time).

The event itself is chaos and the odds are nonsense. The sole purpose of the heavy promotion of the GN for bookmakers is essentially to advertise the sport and get people into "regular" horse betting. Obviously it's a big money maker for trainers, jockeys and Aintree.