One lucky Kiwi has scored the biggest Melbourne Cup win ever in New Zealand, pocketing NZ $1.16 million.

The retired man from Christchurch placed a combination of First4 bets totalling $120. One of those combinations for $30 returned $1.16 million.

The man received $38,939.50 for every dollar he bet.

New Zealanders set a new Melbourne Cup betting record on Tuesday with bets totalling $11.5m on the cup race alone.

That figure exceeded the previous highest turnover on the race of $10.3m set in 2018.

[Source:TVNZ/stuff.co]