Pagebet goes bust

Another bad bit of PR for the UK betting industry with shop chain Pagebet going into administration. The 53-shop company ran like a headless chicken last year according to directors who resigned early in the year. Stan James has stepped up to buy half the shop estate and pay out all outstanding bets.

Job losses as Pagebet goes into adminstration

PAGEBET, one of the leading independent bookmakers in north-east England, went into administration on Friday with the loss of more than 120 jobs.

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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

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It's all gone Pete Tong at Betfair!

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