Geoff Banks hits out at Attheraces

You may remember in our last Bet Diary post we discussed bookmaker Geoff Banks’ blog post, in which he put forward his case as to why he doesn’t accommodate betting ‘geeks’ who do not gamble, but “trade money”.

Well, Geoff’s been at it again, this time hitting out at the Attheraces ‘Sunday Forum’ show which recently hosted a ‘debate’ over bookmaker restrictions.  This time I find myself very much in Geoff’s corner – you can read his article here.

Geoff was rightly critical of the fact the panel, which included Simon Clare, Coral’s mouthpiece and ‘PR guru’, was hosted by Sean Boyce who himself is employed by Coral TV. A setup which is nicely symptomatic of the cosy relationship between bookie and media and one where Boyce was hardly likely to put Clare under undue pressure with searching questions.

Geoff’s argument is that it is not so much the issue of who gets restricted and why but more that it is the “unsustainable” odds and various bonus offerings bookmakers offer that need tackling. These offers force their business model to dictate that any account which suggests an ability to be anything other than a mug must be restricted or closed.

All of which raises the question: Would you happily forfeit Best Odds Guaranteed and the various sign up offers if it meant you could bet for longer and not have stakes restricted?

I know I certainly would!

Profit comes in splurges

Racing Service 1 and Northern Monkey are by far the biggest contributors to the monthly profit count as things stand, and the money made by each has essentially been made in a day.

RS1 had a storming Saturday early in the month and Saturday 11th saw Northern Monkey hit the heights, racking up over 26 points on the day!

Just goes to show that we can gain a little, lose a little with a service over fairly lengthy periods, and then Boom!  Consistency in approach to our betting and staking is so, so important.  Start messing with the basics, and we risk missing out big time!

Figures for the month to date

AH Edge: Staked 31pts, +9.614pts

Chasemaster: Staked 5pts, -5pts

Football Service 1: Staked 11pts, +2.335pts.

Golf Insider: Staked 7500pts, +745.5pts.

Jason James: Staked 75pts, -21.4pts.

MVS (Lite): Staked 36pts, -4.75pts.

Northern Monkey: Staked 49.675pts, +14.043pts.

Pilelist Racing: Staked 17.063pts, -8.116pts.

Racing Service 1: Staked 22.5pts, +21.5pts

Racing Service 2: Staked 51.25pts, -1.15pts.

Total ROI 13.57%, ROC 4.2%

A Bookmaker’s View

Most of you will have heard of Geoff Banks, I’m sure.  For those who haven’t, Geoff is a bookmaker never short of an opinion, and never shy of letting that opinion be known.  He is usually worth listening to and personally, I find his approach far more entertaining than most of the usual grey suited, instantly forgettable bookmaker PR reps we see most often on our TV screens.

Anyway, Geoff recently published a post in his ‘View From The Ring’ blog which put forward his stance on account restrictions and closures.  I’d urge you to have a read of it – it’s interesting stuff, if not completely flawless in it’s logic.

I like the fact that Geoff has an issue with folk that use social media as a medium across which they can be abusive and potentially libellous, seemingly without redress (and I can’t help thinking it a wise move to avoid using a stick to prod Geoff’s busy legal team!).  I have an issue with keyboard warriors too, but that’s another issue.  What is the issue in Geoff’s piece is his obvious disregard for punters who run their betting operation as a “business”, which is where I personally have a problem with Geoff’s argument.

After claiming to have paid out one client £93k recently and subsequently left their account unrestricted, Geoff continues to launch a diatribe against those who, “sit at home utilising expensive trading software like Bet angel, price scalping tools, odds scanners or the like, masking their IP address- only offering a bookmaker a bet because their odds have become out of date, and therefore bigger than Betfair’s exchange.”

In other words, arbers.

Now I have no strong personal stance on the practice of arbing.  I don’t do it myself, because I know it’s a surefire way of killing your accounts quicker than anything else you can do.  But the inference that those who utilise technology, analyse data and who scour the market for best prices are somehow playing unfair?  Really?  Isn’t that what modern-age bookmakers do?    Isn’t that what teams of analysts are employed for (and I appreciate Geoff himself may not employ teams of number-crunchers)?  The betting markets are a battlefield.  Surely even Geoff would agree that each side can arm themselves in the most effective way possible, before letting battle commence.

One final point on this.  Pinnacle Sports “welcome” arbers.  They can afford to because at a fundamental level their business model allows them to.  Sure,  they retain the service of numerous market analysts/traders and new-fangled  technology (ie. computers), but in many ways I see them as running their books on what is the most pure and perhaps old-fashioned bookmaking principle…  they make a book, allowing money to dictate the movement of their prices from their opening mark.  By doing so, they balance their book, using the overround to shave their margin off the top, just as bookmakers used to do in the betting ring and on the rails at racecourses up and down the country.  Do this effectively and efficiently, and I’m not sure why the source of money and what kind of punter someone is of such concern to the bookmaker.  Whether it be a guy sticking a pin into his Racing Post or a “geek” with five screens on his desk – what should it matter?

I’m not dopey enough to directly compare Pinnacle with Geoff Banks; the two are completely different bookmaking  animals, but I’d be interested on Geoff’s take on this last point.

Geoff – over to you…

PS. November’s figures being updated…will be posted soon!

So Halloween has been and gone (and thank Dennis Bergkamp for that! – I’m not American, and I DON’T want my evening being constantly interrupted by some snotty kid who thinks they look like a ghost simply because they’ve stuck a pillow case over their head!) and Christmas is around the corner.  Blimey!

October was the first month of the expanded portfolio but of course Sod’s Law rose from the dead and spooked us out by ensuring that none of the four new services produced a profit.  Instead, what has been a strong month is down to three of the old stalwarts.

Who can forget the Saturday afternoon when Northern Monkey’s strategy of multiple bets and loading up on one horse was vindicated.  Spring Loaded is now a horse that will join the pantheon of the greats in my own (betting) mind, up there with the likes of Blake’s Treasure which won a Seller at Nottingham at 20/1 about 25 years ago!

The form of Morning Value Service (Lite) continues to delight.  I keep telling myself it can’t continue (and it really can’t!) but if you can’t enjoy the run of form this service is currently on then you’re dead inside (making you a Zombie, which is far more scary than any kid in a pillow case!).

And as for Football Service 1…well, ending the month with eight winning bets from nine is pleasing to say the least.  Good to see the battle hardened, grizzly Ghostbuster producing the goods.  If you want footballing profit, who are you going to call?

As for the negatives, well let’s just say the boys at Chasemaster are going to be pleased to see the back of the month.  It’s not been pretty.

Overall, October generated an ROI of 12.72% and bank growth (ROC) of 6.68%. 

Here’s the breakdown…

AH Edge: Staked 67pts, -5.896pts.

Chasemaster: Staked 25.25pts, -22.387pts.

Football Service 1: Staked 36pts, +12.799pts.

Golf Insider: Staked 1480pts, -376.9pts.

Jason James: Staked 110pts, +16.833pts.

Morning Value Service (Lite): Staked 62pts, +19.25pts.

Northern Monkey: Staked 65.175pts, +37.375pts.

Pilelist Racing: Staked 57.771pts, -1.358pts.

Racing Service A: n/a

Racing Service B: Staked 60.75pts, +1.475pts.