If you believe everything that the bookies say then the past fortnight has been a nightmare period for them with huge betting losses incurred for both their racing and football departments.
It all started earlier this month when the weekends football action saw 22 out of 23 short favourites obliging across the 4 main English leagues – resulting in numerous stories of multiple accas coming in and some big pay-outs.
This was then followed up on Wednesday when infamous racing trainer Barney Curley pulled off a massive betting ‘coup’ with 4 very well backed winners.
Yet despite all of this, I don’t feel one iota of pity for them, simply because there is a lot more than meets the eye with these stories.
So without further ado, here are my 6 reasons on why we shouldn’t have sympathy for bookies…
1) They actually want us to lose (its either them or us!)
My first point is the most important and it can often get lost in all the big PR stories on punters success stories. The fact is – most bookmakers only want us to lose money…as that is the only way they ever make a profit.
Not all of them, as there are some honourable exceptions but in general when betting there is only ever one long-term winner – either bookie or punter. Amongst all the hullabaloo of big losses, this point can get blurred.
2)They don’t tell us when they win
Most major bookies employ a big team of PR specialists, all designed to tell us exactly how much they have lost as soon as they have a bad weekend. Take Coral for example, they couldn’t wait to tell us about the £30 million loss suffered by bookies across the land. (Isn’t it amazing how the losses are always such neat round numbers!)
Yet they are remarkably coy about the weekends when they make major profits. I have yet to read a news story claiming ‘Bookies Make £50 Million As All Favourites Lose’!
Yet winning weekends do happen for the bookies and a heck of a lot more frequently than when all the favourites come in or Barney Curley pulls off a massive coup!
3) They want you to take mug bets
The bookies also want you to highlight the winners of certain types of bets such as accumulators as they know long-term they will win more in losing bets than they suffer in payouts.
Coral’s press release was quick to highlight winners such as the chap who turned £2 into £40,600 from a correct 18-way accumulator or the punter who turned £1 into £19,600 by getting 16 results correct.
Just as a broken clock tells the time twice a day, so too will the very occasional 18-way acca come in, but the vast, vast majority of people who place these bets will lose. More than enough to cater for the £61,200 loss that the 2 above accas incurred.
Check out this article for more on this (as written by an SBC member)
4) They have a lot of unfair influence
These days the major bookies are very powerful and they hold sway over large parts of the media, especially those dedicated to betting. Take the Racing Post for example, which is dominated by adverts and features for all the major bookmakers.
The upshot of this is that punters ultimately lose out as these media outlets almost always take the bookies side and refuse to bite the hand that feeds them. After all, when did you last see a Turkey vote for Christmas? There are very few outlets who are bookmaker independent and can say it how it is.
A case in point was RP Editor Bruce Millington’s recent column on FOBT’s where he predictably sided with the ‘for’ argument, despite the growing acceptance by many (including PM David Cameron) that they are a menace and action needs to be taken.
For more on this story I can recommend listening to independent bookie Geoff Banks on this recent Bet Racing Nation TV Show
5) They are raking it in!
Staying with FOBT machines, don’t forget either the likes of Coral and other major high street bookies are making a small fortune from them every week – more than enough to cover occasional losses!
In fact, the Gambling Commission report claims there are 33,000 machines in the UK alone, with each grossing an average weekly take of £825! That’s a profit of £2.7M per week, so you can see why we need to treat their claims of big losses with a pinch of salt.
6) They won’t play fair…
Many of the big name bookies get little sympathy from me and many others, simply because they won’t play fair and allow shrewd punters to bet with them.
As our Independent Guide To Horse Racing revealed, some bookies such as Boylesports and Stan James either closed or heavily restricted upwards of 70% of SBC members accounts.
Why did they do that you ask? Simple…they were identified as being too shrewd, either for placing a few too many winning bets or perhaps not enough 18-way accas!
Once again, there are a good number of honourable exceptions to this rule but it’s hard to feel sympathy for some big name bookies when they refuse to offer a level playing field for punters.
Enjoyed This…Why Not Consider A Smart Betting Club Membership?
I have probably set the cat amongst the pigeons with this article, but as the Smart Betting Club is independent from bookmakers and their ilk, I am free to discuss things others dare not.
Most bookies don’t like us and that’s fine as we are on the punters side, dedicated to helping you improve your betting profits.
Peter – Smart Betting Club Editor
P.s. If you want to find out more on the best bookmakers – you can now get both our independent guides to Racing & Football bookies free with a new SBC membership. Both of these guides provide the lowdown on the best bookmakers as rated by SBC members and the pro-gambling team here at the Smart Betting Club.