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My post from another thread:
Supposedly enough shops would close to cost British racing a minimum of £55m. Leaving aside the issue of whether the closures would remove excess and restore balance to the High Street, £400m of the Jockey Club’s planned £500m investment in the sport is/was NOT going to come from the sale of Kempton, therefore, the JC is quite able to dip a hand into its deep pocket. £55m is loose change to the JC. Might mean it won’t be able to put on glorified dog racing at Newmarket – what a shame!
Very well said Simon Rowlands.
“Risk management should not be taken to equal risk elimination. Betting on horseracing by its nature involves risk – whichever side of the counter you are on – and that is a significant part of its appeal compared to some alternatives.
It is crucial to betting on the sport, and to the sport itself, that it remains aspirational. That it should be possible, in theory, to turn a profit, or at least to lose less, by applying enough skill and discipline.
By acquiring that skill and knowledge, an individual may well become an advocate for, and contributor to, the sport of horseracing itself.
The modern betting landscape seems to have lent itself to a safety-first attitude to risk management. Where once it might have taken many bets to establish that a punter was ‘hot’, individuals are having accounts closed or restricted sometimes as a result of just a few bets.
Those bets do not have to have been successful, just to resemble the fingerprint of someone who may, possibly, be successful in the future. As an example, those who bet on horses who subsequently shorten in price seem to be prime targets for restriction.”
Some figures and views from Skybet’s boss on this
Sky Bet lifts the lid on account restrictions at Parliamentary debate
The tide is turning and the big bookmakers know it, therefore, they are issuing a mixture of threats and potential concessions in a desperate effort to avoid severe regulation. Their endeavours are too little, too late and lack integrity.
The tide is turning and the big bookmakers know it, therefore, they are issuing a mixture of threats and potential concessions in a desperate effort to avoid severe regulation. Their endeavours are too little, too late and lack integrity.
How can a CEO of a Bookmakers with 1 million active weekly punters state “That means we must have the ability to decline to lay bets to customers who we have a reasonable belief will be unprofitable for us in the long term.”
It is comparable to Ratner saying “our earings are cheaper than a M & S prawn sandwich and do not last as long ”
The bookies deserve a serious spanking for all the stunts they’ve pulled, but they’re not crying wolf over the FOBT situation. Whatever your ethical standpoint, if FOBT stakes go to £2 there will be carnage in the industry. I worked in it most of my life and have friends there still who have told me privately what is being said publicly.
I was working at the Tote when these machines started taking off and I warned then that the putting of all the eggs in one basket with FOBTs would end up a serious error. The chickens might just be coming home to roost. But again, believe me, they’re not bluffing here. They just ballsed the whole thing up.
I’ve read posts saying they made profits from horseracing before 2005 and can do so again. In 2005 they weren’t paying up to 30 grand a year per shop for media rights. Racing is a losing sport for most independents and for quite a few shops owned by the big boys. In many other cases it’s breaking even and no more. Costs are far too high and the tracks and track management have been greedily sucking up the media rights money – that’s the basket most of their eggs are in so they will be the next ones in deep trouble.
Bookies have made most of their own troubles here, but the end result will be life changing for many involved in racing.
How many FOBT’s in betting shops in Ireland? None, that’s how many there should be in betting shops in Britain.
The government made a big mistake at the time allowing them, they have admitted so since, bookmakers couldn’t believe their luck.
Frankly the BHA’s response to the issue has been a disgrace, why should British racing make money from betting shops solely there to make money from the “crack cocaine” of gambling?
The machines should go down to £2
From the other related thread:
At the risk of Lost Soldier self-combusting I present the link to another reasonable and well thought out article by Greg Wood 🙂
If the courses do lose out on media rights payments, the Jockey Club will have to put its hand in its deep pocket.
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