Bet Exchange News – February 2004

Cubone goes on a health drive!

I have now been operating on exchanges for almost 2 years, and feel that it is the most exciting revolution I have ever known. However, many new developments have an unexpected downside and I am now finding that betting exchanges could be bad for your health!

My 50 years in the betting rings, was a most healthy existence, as a youth and a tick tack I would spend most of the day trading with as many as 50 bookmakers in 5 lines, the hedging and trading was frantic. No day appeared the same. Festival weeks at Yarmouth , Goodwood and Brighton would tan my thick skin so that from April through to October I was like a ripe conker. As soon as the last runner arrived at the Doncaster leger meeting it was said that he had snow on his tail. From then on days on the hill at Devon and Exeter , or the frosts of Ludlow and Bangor , and a few days at Hexham made me as healthy as a butchers dog.

When I gave all that up to become a fully fledged exchange player, I never realised the potential threat to my health from my new lifestyle. I have always carried a little over weight, the reason for this was the fact that I could eat for England . However, after 2 years at my PC I have put 8 inches on my waist and 3 stone on my weight. I hope that Peter Saville does not read this newsletter as he will ask for a government enquiry from some Harley Street specialist. Over Christmas my wife requested that unless the usual gifts of socks and jumpers were to be purchased from the Big And tall gentlemen's outfitters in New Street, Birmingham, that they would be better off buying me sherry or chocolates.. That in itself was not the cleverest of moves! It came to a head when I ate a full box of Cadbury's Milk Tray single handedly in one sitting whilst watching Taxi Driver. The next day, Jan 10th made me realise that not only trading changes were important, but I had to change my whole health and living pattern.

I have always been strong willed if I put my mind to it. In fact in 1980 I had a thousand pound side bet with a Nottingham bookmaker that I would lose more weight than him in six months. I found out afterwards that he had given himself a 10lb allowance at the weigh in, by carrying the days takings in coinage in his overcoat pocket. It was the size of the bet that caused my enthusiasm and ensured that I won it. This time my motivation is PC burnout. I now walk 5 miles ever day in any weather and aim to get down to 14 stone before Goodwood, a loss of 3 stone, Within 7 days of the weigh in I have lost 2 inches off my girth and 10 lb off my weight. It is going to be hard work but it would be much easier if I could have a £1,000 to £80. Any takers?

There is an old racing saying, "you're alright as long as your eyes and your knees don't give way." Hopefully with my five mile walk I've got my knees covered, but my eyesight is causing me concern, because of the proximity of the screen and the long hours I spend staring at it. The way I see it, the eye is a muscle, and needs exercising. To compensate for all the time I spend on the PC, when I go for my walk around the midland lakes I make sure that I gaze at distant objects. I can actually feel the muscles in my eyes working as I do this, I'm sure it helps.

Starting price copyright issues

Last month I talked about the past, present and possible future of the Starting Price Mechanism. I finished the article explaining that there was a potentially sensational development with the copyright of the SP. There have been suggestions in the past that bookmakers should have copyright over their starting prices. It was argued that they wrote their prices on their boards and therefore if someone wanted to reproduce them, the bookmakers should be entitled to charge them for the privilege. The answer to this point was that the Press Association took the prices and combined them with the prices of various other bookmakers to arrive at what they considered to be a fair and accurate starting price. The technical term to describe this process is 'artistry.' In this case the effect of the artistry is that the odds from a number of unidentified bookmakers have been taken and used to create something new and different. As it is the press Association that has created the starting price it means that they had copyright over it.

This debate has been thrown wide open again by the new system being employed by the SIS where certain bookmakers linked their computerised boards on which their odds are offered to the central SIS system which then takes an average of the odds offered at the close and applies a standard formula to generate the SP. The argument now is that because the bookmakers who have contributed to the scheme are listed alongside their odds for anyone who wants to see it, that their copyright should apply and they should be able to charge for the use of that material. This has yet to be tested, but if it were it could really put the cat back amongst the pigeons.

BHB target on course bookmakers

It's a tough time for the British Horse Racing Board as they look for ways to bridge the gap in horse racing's finances. You may recall their misguided attempt last year, to get the newspapers to pay massively increased rates for the daily race cards. The newspapers called their bluff and either left out entire race cards, or failed to list the race sponsors. The result was an embarrassing climbdown for the BHB. In their latest attempt to identify new revenue streams for the race course industry, they announced on January 16th that they intend to charge race course bookmakers for the use of their data. Unfortunately for the BHB, like the issue with the newspapers, this latest attempt appears doomed to failure. The bookmakers have been told by their trade association that the BHB are acting unlawfully in their demand, as they are in breach of Section 13 of the 1963 Betting and Gaming Act. This states that on course bookmakers must not be charged more then five times the amount that the race going public would pay as an entrance fee to the part of the course in which the bookmaker is operating. The main precedent that they will rely on is the 1973 case Midland Greyhound v Foley, a case where Wolverhampton Greyhounds attempting to charge for the lists of runners, taking the charge over the five times limit. The BHB are getting ready to make a test case out of one bookmaker and it is rumoured that they have chosen a leading rails bookmaker to do so. Of course these are not one of the big three who have a close relationship with the BHB.

You can't please all of the people all of the time...

I've had a mixed month on the forums. Not for the first time I have been targeted by what can only be described as a cyber stalker, someone who it seems has taken such offence to my postings that he has made it his life's mission to undermine, taunt and insult me at every opportunity. After a while this started to get me down, and I considered retiring from the forum. I put up a posting asking if it was time for me to call it a day. I must admit that I was overwhelmed with the response, 50 within an hour and 48 of them encouraging me to continue as one of the forum elders! Thanks to everyone for their support, it looks like I'll be around for a little bit longer. In the meantime this unpleasant person has been banned for cyber abuse!

That's all for me for this edition. Keep an eye out for me on the forums, and I look forward to speaking to you next month. Good luck. Cubone.