Skip to main content

"greatest ever" day for British bookies

Well, it's a hardly a surprise when Mon Mome, a 100/1 shot, wins the Grand National!

Bookies toast 'best ever' National day

Congratulations to Venetia Williams and all her team. She is a fantastic trainer. And for the lad, Liam Treadwell, who rode the winner at his first ride in the race - enjoy the moment, because the rest of your life is probably going to be an anti-climax!

Update - having 66/1 shots win the final two races made this the bonanza of all time for bookies today....

Comments

  1. Scott, any thoughts on the poor behaviour of Clare Balding on the BBC? Making Treadwell smile and making him feel small just after winning the national was low.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Can't say I noticed it to be honest, she does have a rather abrupt style. But if you asked the jockey, I doubt he'd even remember speaking to her...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Should also comment on a bad day for some bookmakers. Stan James website was down all day, Betfred crashed at about 1pm and Boylesport had problems too. Betfair was very slow. These companies can't handle the traffic on the big days.

    ReplyDelete
  4. they can probably afford an upgrade now!

    Betfair has been slowing down for a while now. Definitely worth using trading software as often as possible, but even that isn't immune to speed issues.

    ReplyDelete
  5. oh, you mean the teeth thing? The jockey didn't care so what's the big deal? They are pretty bad, even he can joke about that...

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks for your comments, but if you're a spammer, you've just wasted your time - it won't get posted.

Popular posts from this blog

Spot-fixing - you will never, ever be able to stop it

According to this report , IPL tournaments so far have been rife with spot-fixing - that is fixing minor elements of the game - runs in a single over, number of wides bowled etc. The curious part of that article is that the Income Tax department are supposed to have found these crimes. What idiot would be stupid enough to put down 'big wad of cash handed to me by bookie' as a source of income? Backhanders for sportsmen, particularly in a celebrity- and cricket-obsessed culture like India are not rare. They could come from anything like turning up to open someone's new business (not a sponsor, but a 'friend of a friend' arrangement), to being a guest at some devoted fan's dinner party etc. The opportunities are always there, and there will always be people trying to become friends with players and their entourage - that is human nature. This form of match-fixing (and it's not really fixing a match, just a minor element of it) is very hard to prove, but also, ...

lay the field - my favourite racing strategy

Dabbling with laying the field in-running at various prices today, not just one price, but several in the same race. Got several matched in the previous race at Brighton, then this race came along at Nottingham. Such a long straight at Nottingham makes punters often over-react and think the finish line is closer than it actually is. As you can see by the number of bets matched, there was plenty of volatility in this in-play market. It's rare you'll get a complete wipe-out with one horse getting matched at all levels, but it can happen, so don't give yourself too much risk...

It's all gone Pete Tong at Betfair!

The Christmas Hurdle from Leopardstown, a good Grade 2 race during the holiday period. But now it will go into history as the race which brought Betfair down. Over £21m at odds of 29 available on Voler La Vedette in-running - that's a potential liability of over £500m. You might think that's a bit suspicious, something's fishy, especially with the horse starting at a Betfair SP of 2.96. Well, this wasn't a horse being stopped by a jockey either - the bloody horse won! Look at what was matched at 29. Split that in half and multiply by 28 for the actual liability for the layer(s). (Matched amounts always shown as double the backers' stake, never counts the layers' risk). There's no way a Betfair client would have £600m+ in their account. Maybe £20 or even £50m from the massive syndicates who regard(ed) Betfair as safer than any bank, but not £600m. So the error has to be something technical. However, rumour has it, a helpdesk reply (not gospel, natur...