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No Grass tbh :biggrin:
They also had trouble with distribution in some areas from what i read
How can people buy it, if they can’t get hold it
Quote: from betlarge on 12:13 pm on Oct. 10, 2006[br]
Ask a sports punter his thoughts about United v Liverpool and he’ll give you an opinion straight away. There is no need to ‘study’ anything.
Mike<br>
<br>Oh dear :o
i’m sure there are sports punters who would love to get their hands on a few years of OPTA data and analyse it for a few hours/days/months<br>
(Edited by empty wallet at 12:30 pm on Oct. 10, 2006)
Prufrock,
I wrote to Mr. David Brown, Mr. Methven and yourself just about the time that the newspaper was about to be published, asking for employment on an ad hoc basis.<br> <br>Now I am not young and I am not a graduate and to be honest I would have been astonished if you had given me any work. However, I did expect to receive some sort of reply. I have to tell you that, at this time I have received no such reply!!:o ;)
I only bought the newspaper once and the thing that put me off was that you had Geoff Lester as a columnist/reporter. A bad sign I felt and a sign that suggested you weren’t looking for new ‘talent’.
I am sorry that the newspaper didn’t really get off the ground and I wish you the very best in the future.
Regards,
Colin
Quote: from Sal on 11:09 am on Oct. 10, 2006[br]Where was your placement, Lekha?<br>
With the RP
Quote: from Prufrock on 11:52 am on Oct. 10, 2006[br]
At University working hard to get a good degree and, before that, at school working hard to get into a good University.
I imagine any graduates ended their studies in June or early July. The only application  from a University leaver I received since then was from someone trying to break into sports journalism.
This is not intended to be personal, however, but merely an illustration that there were openings and a chronic shortage of talented young hopefuls willing to chance their arm to fill them.
As mentioned before, good luck.<br>
As soon as I finished Uni I started the BHB programme and before the grad programme I quite honestly didn’t know enough about racing to dive straight into a job…nor really the relevant experience to apply.<br>Now I feel I have that experience and that is why it is only now I am working on finding a job.
Quote: from empty wallet on 12:20 pm on Oct. 10, 2006[br]
Quote: from betlarge on 12:13 pm on Oct. 10, 2006[br]
Ask a sports punter his thoughts about United v Liverpool and he’ll give you an opinion straight away. There is no need to ‘study’ anything.
Mike<br>
<br>Oh dear :o
<br>BTW Betlarge don’t mean to offend by the above, i’m just shocked you said what you did
Bookies, Professional sports punters base their prices on studying statistics provided by the likes of OPTA, this is what your up against when betting on sports
It’s the same as with horse racing you have bookies/pro’s studying vast databases like Timeform etc, not the horses past 3 formlines printed in the RP
<br>To beat them, you need to do the same but better
(Edited by empty wallet at 1:03 pm on Oct. 10, 2006)
Colin,
Sorry about not having replied to you. Perhaps the fact that you were the kind of person who would buy the paper once and once only came through in your application.
I was also at "the time that the newspaper was about to be published" one of many moving heaven and Earth to try to avoid a catastrophic launch. I/we failed.
I can hereby reveal that we are interested in your application but do not have any suitable positions at present.  :cool:
I agree entirely with your view that The Sportsman failed to stay true to its vision (and mission statements, for what its worth) and allowed too many freeloaders and lightweights on board.
There were, however, some good aspects to the paper as well in my view. But I would say that.
This is not intended to be personal, however, but merely an illustration that there were openings and a chronic shortage of talented young hopefuls willing to chance their arm to fill them.
Sums it up, Lekha.
It clearly does not apply to you in person, and apologies if I gave the impression otherwise.
(Edited by Prufrock at 1:13 pm on Oct. 10, 2006)
I know a lot of punters who bet on football but would never consider buying a sports paper in order to help them with their bets. Since joining BF, I’ve made a decent profit from betting/laying on football but I rarely look at the football section of the R/Post even though I buy it every day. If a thicko like me can do this then there must be others who do even better without special studying.
Empty wallet could well be right with his comments but I just don’t think that punters are interested in buying a daily sports paper to bet on sports other than horse racing/greyhounds and possibly golf which are all covered in the R/Post..
Empty
You make a fair point, but how many punters truly wade through ‘form’ in footy, rugby, cricket etc as opposed to horse racing?
I’m sure a minority love to analyse how many backpasses Rio makes in an average game, but I would still wager that far more go on ‘gut instinct’. That is not disparaging – many sports punters astutely get their info from watching games and immersing themselves in their chosen sport rather than analysing form.
One can always spot a great striker, batsman, golfer etc but in racing, unless you know the form context of the contest you are watching – well, they’re just horses running round a field aren’t they?
Mike
Quote: from betlarge on 2:34 pm on Oct. 10, 2006[br]Empty
You make a fair point, but how many punters truly wade through ‘form’ in footy, rugby, cricket etc as opposed to horse racing?
<br>Mike
Far more than you think
i could put you on two forums i know that have a lot more sports punters on than here, and all will probably study statistics of some form or another
<br>The interenet is overrun by footie stats sites, why?
<br>Why do you think bookies are now promoting footie, other sports so much at the expense of racing?
<br>Why would they pay oddsmakers loads of dosh if it’s so easy to determine the outcome of a sports event?
Because they know that most think the same way as you do at present
<br>Like the last 3 runs of horse won’t tell you the "true" ability, the last 3 wins by Chelsea won’t tell you their "true" chance against West Ham
(Edited by empty wallet at 3:01 pm on Oct. 10, 2006)
Just wondering – do any serious punters rely on the RP form? Surely you have a form book or use one of the internet/online services. Would a racing paper survive on spotlight comments, colours and tipping alone – or is pages and pages of form a necessity?
I consider myself to be a serious punter ( if not always a good one;) ) and I also buy a weekly formbook ( similar to timeform ) and watch as many races as I can etc etc.
The R/Post is a useful tool but I can’t imagine that any serious punter would bet by just using the RP form.
I wish to record my apologies to seabird for the tone of my earlier post, which could be construed as flippant.
In particular, my comment:
I can hereby reveal that we are interested in your application but do not have any suitable positions at present.
was intended to be ironic. We do not have any suitable positions at The Sportsman at present, for me or for anyone else.
There is a suitable position at Sainsbury’s stacking shelves, however, and I intend to check it out…
Mulls, serious punters are small in number. The bums-on-seats punters DO require pages of form (it surprised me a bit as well).
Empty
"Because they know that most think the same way as you do at present"
Er…quite. Isn’t that precisely my point? I’m not saying that no sports punters study form in depth – just not enough of them to support a newspaper offering such a service.
And I would certainly not say that it was easy!
I punt a lot on cricket. I don’t study ‘form’ as such, but I do know the players, their capabilities, how the wicket is likely to play etc. I do this by watching unhealthy amounts of the game and noticing who is in form, who goes well under pressure and so on. But most of the info just sinks in as I enjoy the game.
I also bet on racing. I do this by studying form.
Okay, there’s a lot of "I"’s in there and it’s always dangerous to assume that everyone behaves like oneself, but I would be confident that if The Sportsman had shunted sports coverage to the back pages and produced (from the start) quality cards, form and analysis for racing then they would still be in business today.
Mike
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