In keeping with almost any month you care to nominate over the past five years, November 2005 offered yet more evidence that the punting landscape has changed forever in our favour.
The news that high street bookmakers are suddenly falling over themselves to hedge their liabilities on exchanges doesn’t necessarily come with a promise of increased liquidity (it probably just eliminates the on-course bookie as middle man, although Betdaq might care to disagree) but it does imply that the bookmaking industry as a whole has surrendered yet more ground to this new age of punter power.
The thing I’ve found most amusing about this whole scenario is watching how quickly a bookie can toss aside his morals and principles for the great fight when it comes to protecting his own financial interests in the immediate future.
The on-course bookie who accuses the exchange movement of promoting corruption in racing doesn’t seem to think twice about supporting that supposed corruption when whacking a high street firm’s hedge money straight on to the very same platform, even though taking such shelter in the safe house jeopardises the SP system that gives his job its only remaining credibility.
Meanwhile, the high street firms who have become sick at the sight of their over-rounds being reduced because their hedge money is making very little impact on the course market are now quite prepared to transfer that hedge money directly to the companies who benefit from what they regard as an unlevel playing field.
In the meantime, the two sets of margin-lovers take out their frustration on each other in a very public bickering match carried out through the Racing Post. I mean, whatever happened to honour amongst thieves?
As we can only come to expect, the high street firms clearly see strengthening the power of the exchange industry as the lesser of two evils when it comes in direct comparison with actually standing a bet and displaying courage of conviction in their own prices.
All I can say is, if you’re not prepared to earn your money by showing the necessary bottle by which some old-fashioned bookies were respected then you’ve got no option but to embrace the exchanges as the honest marketplace it is, just like the rest of us.
Welcome to our world, boys. I’m sure, deep down, you’ll be just as grateful for it as we are – even if you never would dare come out and say so.
Anyway, on a more personal note, it’s interesting that our General Betting correspondent John Ross should highlight a thread on the Betfair forum about the adverse social effects of full-time punting in this issue.
The general opinion amongst those who have never been a ‘professional gambler’ is that such an occupation must be a life of luxury and while I wouldn’t expect their hearts to bleed at the thought that it can often be a lonely and monotonous process, it is important to for us to acknowledge that such a problem exists.
I’m sure at some stage in recent years we’ve all spent far too many hours in front of the computer screen and not enough time out in the fresh air (or even down at the pub) but for some people that idleness can often escalate into spending all of their waking hours indoors with virtually zero social life.
Personally, I’m just thankful that it has never quite got to that stage for me but I have woke up on a Monday morning and not really given my health or mental well-being a second thought until I looked in the mirror on a Thursday evening realising I desperately needed a shave.
All of which makes me even more convinced that I made the right choice when I committed myself to editing this newsletter. I never envisaged beforehand how much graft it would take to get some real momentum going because there’s much more to this project than simply knocking out a few articles every month but it’s already giving me a great deal of satisfaction, not to mention a sense of achievement.
The biggest reward of all, though, is that every day I seem to be learning something new about the industry in which I’m trying to earn my primary income, whether that be at the Betting Show at Biirmingham NEC understanding how automated betting systems operate or chatting over MSN with Mike Cooksedge and inadvertently gaining a better knowledge about the finer details of reality TV markets.
In his farewell message last month, Mike was keen to highlight the impact this role had in helping to provide a comfortable standard of living for him and his family and, one month on, I’m glad to say I’m already beginning to realise how.
As a result, I’m finding inspiration easy to come by in terms of ideas. In recent weeks, I have scheduled an interview for January with Ed Nicholson at World Bet Exchange ahead of their launch the following month and I’d be very interested to hear of any questions that our readers would like to put to him.
Meanwhile, following our feature on automated betting last month, I’ve now arranged to fly over to Dublin next weekend for a one-day beginner’s course in how to use the Sports Trading Workstation and I’ll be reviewing that particular product in next month’s issue.
Looking further on the horizon, I’m also toying with the idea of introducing an annual Bet Exchange News survey in order to develop not only a better understanding of our readership but also canvass opinion on the betting exchange industry in general. Once again, if there’s any issues you’d like to see addressed in such a survey I’d be keen to hear your thoughts.
Anyway, all that remains is for me to offer my best wishes to all our readers for Christmas and New Year – and let’s raise a glass to it being a profitable one!
Mike Holden
Miguel@betexchangenews.com
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