Office workers are racing to the internet to have a last minute flutter on this weekend's Grand National horse-racing event, says research.

Over the last week, the number of employees using the internet during office hours to use gambling sites has increased by 73 per cent, according to web security firm ScanSafe.

According to the survey, Hedgehunter is the most searched for horse in Saturday's race. Betfair was the most visited site over the past week, followed by Ladbrokes and Racing Post.

But Eldar Tuvey, chief executive of ScanSafe warns that recreational web browsing by employees could put businesses at risk, if viruses and information stealing malware is accidentally downloaded from less reputable gambling websites.

'The fact that people are checking out gambling sites is no big surprise on the run up to the UK’s biggest horse race,' said Tuvey. 'What is a concern is that recreational surfing at work can open up potential security risks for companies by exposing them to inappropriate content, web viruses and spyware that can potentially steal confidential information and passwords.'

'Recently we have protected a number of our corporate customers from trojan threats that are being distributed through some dubious gambling sites which can modify users’ desktop settings.'

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