Sport is made for betting

The UK racing industry insists on running these low standard all-weather meetings to generate turnover to pay the Levy. The Levy fund isn't enough to provide decent prizemoney for these rubbish events. Ireland, slated recently for not having their all-weather track open during the depths of winter, at least maintain a standard - they have minimum prizemoney levels they refuse to break, meaning they won't just run rubbish races for the sake of it with prizemoney of a case of Guinness. At Lingfield on Thursday, two low-grade handicaps - Class 6 - the lowest of the low in Britain, and described as "..shit, low-grade handicaps" by the trainer in question, were won by horses which were entitled by 20/1 shots at least, with zero recent form on the board. Both horses were backed into favouritism (which to be honest, wouldn't require millions on such poor races) and won comfortably. The humble punter who wasn't in on the information is entitled to throw his hands in...

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.

Could Con Kafataris and family, majority owners of Centrebet, be ready to sell up and get out of the bookmaking business? This report seems to think so: Centrebet keen to join forces BOOKMAKER Centrebet has confirmed it is looking to buy a competitor or be taken over after its surging share price drew a speeding ticket from the stock exchange. The ASX yesterday asked Centrebet to explain a 21 per cent increase in its share price -- from $1.32 at close of trade last Wednesday to a high of $1.60 during trade yesterday. ... Several potential buyers are reported to be circling Centrebet, with controlling shareholders the Kafataris family said to be willing to sell their 60 per cent stake if the price is right. ... Centrebet has reportedly been eyeing some of the industry's smaller players, while global operator Ladbrokes is said have considered making a bid for Centrebet. Centrebet shares closed yesterday up 8.57 per cent at $1.54. Interesting developments. Centrebet can't get a lo...

Bizarre story this - an 80yo Melbourne racecourse bookmaker was robbed at the end of a fairly busy raceday at Flemington. But the robber then had a guilt trip and gave most of the money back! Guilt beats greed after not-so-great bookie robbery

bwin have been hammered for closing accts and poor customer service over the years. They even have a rule buried deep in their T&Cs prohibiting accounts from employed at other firms. But this one has to take the cake. The punter wins €2000 and then the bookmaker says 'sorry, we shouldn't have offered these bets to you in the first place'. There's no comeback for this. The punter has done nothing wrong, and bwin have remote staff based in Australia trading live on AFL and NRL matches. If that is not deliberately targetting Australian clients to bet in-running, then I don't know what is. Conveniently hiding behind rules to suit themselves, they know damn well what they are doing is wrong, but also that the Australian government will never prosecute a firm based overseas anyway. Every UK bookmaker offers betting in-running to Aussies, the only firm who restricts is Betfair because they hold an Australian licence. read the thread from OLBG - bwin shafts punter Pure ...

With a disqualification or suspension imminent, one of Melbourne's leading rails bookmakers, Simon Beasley has called it quits. Embattled bookmakers calls it quits A shame, he and his team of staff brought a lot of life to the track and off-course festivities at racing carnivals, but when you break the rules....

From the PR wires: MANGAS GAMING, French leading group in online gaming and sports betting, which operates Betclic, active in France and Southern Europe, announces the two following transactions: - The acquisition of all the operations of Expekt, a major online sports betting company, addressing primarily the Scandinavian and Northern European markets. Expekt is also a major player in online poker. - The acquisition of a controlling stake in Bet-at-home from its founders. Bet-at-home, a Frankfurt listed company, is an online betting and gaming operator mainly present in Central and Eastern Europe. A public offer will be launched shortly to acquire the shares held by Bet-at-Home's minority shareholders. Both transactions benefit from the full support of the management of the acquired companies. With these acquisitions, MANGAS GAMING, enters the top 5 online sports betting operators in Europe, with gross gaming revenues amounting ...

The former star footballer has been a leading bookmaker in Melbourne for a decade or more now, but an error on the books a few months back, allegedly showing bets being taken off the record, seems to have turned into a much deeper problem. Detectives probe bookie bets Not sure I'd want to be in his shoes at the moment...

Word got out on Friday night about this one. A mate allegedly told me on MSN but his typing is so crap I didn't have a clue what he meant so I ignored it.... Ah well, c'est la vie! Bookmakers lose £1m in betting plunge Read the last couple of paragraphs in the article from Steve Palmer and George Primarolo. Once again proving the point about the further you go off the beaten track to have a bet, the more chance you have of winning because every man and his dog isn't aware of the team news.

Betfair's landmark vistory in the High Court this week over the head-in-the-sand protectionists of the WA Govt will shake up the betting industry of Australia like never before. Not only can a state deny a firm licensed in another state the licence to operate or use their data should they be willing to pay a similar fee to everyone else, it also will mean an end to the interstate advertising restrictions which has hampered competition for years. Now we can have a proper national racing paper, bookmakers and betting exchanges being allowed to sponsor races or sporting teams or even advertise on TV. Most states recognised the laws breached the constitution but the racing bodies, heavily controlled by the TABs, made sure no rival firm was allowed to advertise. Only NSW was anal-retentive enough to think their law would stand up in court, or at the very least, liked to wave their 'power' around and threaten anyone who dared to advertise in NSW if they weren't licensed there...

In the recent £2m problem gambler claim, the judge has remarkably found bookmaker William Hill at fault, but effectively said the punter would have lost all his money anyway, so it wasn't their fault.... Surely this one has further to go via appeals courts. Read here for more.

Big story this week in the UK press is of a leading greyhound trainer suing bookmaker William Hill for £2m, after the punter had self-excluded himself. Daily Mail article Gambling unfortunately attracts people with addictive personalities and people who simply can't stop betting, despite what their bank balance tells them. Stories from casinos in particular where gamblers simply bet their lives away hurt the entire industry which works hard to keep itself above the seedy reputation earned by a tiny minority of establishments. Companies in the better-regulated jurisdictions all have responsible gambling policies, where problem gamblers can stop themselves from betting with a company via self-exclusion measures. The punter here alleges he started gambling again just weeks after he sought self-exclusion with Hills, and they agreed to it. Then he proceeded to lose £2m fairly quickly. It's easy to blame the punter for his lack of self-discipline, but if William Hill have committed t...

Give Yourself An Edge - Play weak markets By Scott Ferguson Originally published at www.puntingace.com Take a look at the highest rating sporting events on TV, then compare them to a list of the most popular betting events. The bookmakers follow these events closely, the punters follow them closely, so how are you supposed to make an edge? Ask yourself this question: If a bookmaker has to price up English Premiership soccer, the Super Bowl and Australian NBL basketball all at the same time - which event is he more likely to make an error in? Think about it - the vast majority of clients and the bigger bets are going to come for the higher profile events. Thus your bookie is going to spend 90% of his time doing the research, managing the risk, keeping an eye on the newswire and other prices on the big events as well. That makes it very tough for you to find an edge on those markets. Every little item gets reported on TV, on the internet, in the pape...