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“I’m not sure what the big deal is tbh.
Betting shops are a bricks and mortar business with higher operating costs.
The odds offered reflect that.
On the internet, costs are lower so they can afford to operate to tighter margins.”
To be fair Ian this is a good point, maybe it’s the same with clothes in that fancy designer clothes cost more in the Ralph Lauren store in central London than they do on Ralph Laurens website? I have no idea to be honest but would be interesting to see if this is a common theme across multiple sectors because as you’ve stated it would make sense for it to be this way.
Hills have closed plenty of shops in my neck of the woods. It had already announced a programme of shop closures after the FOBT ruling, which I expect made plenty of shops unprofitable. Then lockdown came along. When shops were allowed to open again, two of the Hills shops in my neighbourhood never reopened. I expect they had already been marked down for closure and they just decided there was no point opening them again. Several more have closed since.
Funny you say that CAS I was in Kingston for the first time in a while last week and noticed their big shop in the town centre had closed down too, it’s been replaced by some random bookmaker though so I’m sure there will still be plenty of addicts created around here.
There are definitely fewer betting shops overall round here. Almost certainly the golden goose of FOBTs being killed that has done it with a bit of covid thrown in for good measure.
The Ladbrokes Coral merger saw some away due to competition rules, although some were simply sold to other firms.
I’m sure they would tell us that shops provide jobs but even managers aren’t on that much. There’s pretty high turnover of staff as many (me included) who go on to better things. London is particularly bad I am told, staff are on the whole bloody useless according to friends there.
Yeah Richard it’s a joke, the manager in my local paddypower is great but the rest are a p*ss take, I asked to see their Cheltenham ante-post odds this April and the two people there hadn’t heard of ante-post or Cheltenham! They were in shock when I told them I wanted to bet on something 11 months away lol.
Not surprising tbh. There’s a few good staff about but they are outnumbered. Where I worked was decent, we were mostly racing as well as general sports fans and punters ourselves so everybody knew what they were talking about.
I am not surprised either. Most betting shop staff appear to know very little about racing. Sorry to say it but most of the girls who work in the shops know nothing about the sport at all. They are hired to smile and take bets.
Anyone who thinks that is sexist should check out the details of Barney Curley’s coup in 2010 which involved an army of foot soldiers going around London betting shops and putting on multiples on four Curley horses. They were told where possible to put the bets on with girls because lads were far more likely to know about racing and might realise something was afoot.
As for shop closures, most of them have not surprised me but I was quite shocked to see the large Hills shop on Bold Street in Liverpool has closed. I can remember when that was one of its flagship shops.
Curley didn’t get to where he was without meticulous planning. It’s a game of percentages and the fact is that, as you say, female staff are more likely to lack the knowledge required to rumble him than their male counterparts.
FOBT’s still making **** loads of money
I went up Ladbrokes this morning to read the racing post and I watched a woman walk in and go through £300 in no more than 20 minutes she was in the middle of putting more money in when I walked outBlackbeard to conquer the World
It was theoretically possible to burn through that £300 in a single minute before so they still make money, just slower.
My brain is not complex enough to fathom who would want to do such a thing
Blackbeard to conquer the World
Quite the opposite Nathan, if you can’t work out why anybody would do it, it’s becuase your brain is far more complex than that of a £100 a spin roulette player.
Special Buddy is currently 15/2 with William Hill online for the 6.20 at Stratford tomorrow evening.
I wonder what price he is in their shops?
(This curiosity is entirely unrelated to the fact I saw him bolt up in Point-to-Points at Larkhill and Mollington last season).
I am "The Horse Racing Punter" on Facebook
https://mobile.twitter.com/Ian_Davies_
https://www.facebook.com/ThePointtoPointNHandFlatracingpunter/
It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"He’s not the most consistent, Tim, but this is his trip and he has a couple of winning runs in Points that suggest he might just be a bit ahead of his mark on his return to rules.
He was backed at 12/1 last night.
I am "The Horse Racing Punter" on Facebook
https://mobile.twitter.com/Ian_Davies_
https://www.facebook.com/ThePointtoPointNHandFlatracingpunter/
It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"
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