And I thought he was my friend...........

ElCrapula

Paddy Power's marketing strategy has always irked me.
'Sure Paddy is one of the lads' kind of buzz.
The man himself frequently has his mug on the TV or his snot on the radio giving off this pally pally routine,"we're the punters friend" and so on.Their novelty bets are ridiculous and are just there to garner more attention/lure in fools,Eamon Dunphy to get the Sunderland job to mention just one.
I read they had an ad a while ago that claimed you can bet on anything,well....anything to do with Sports anyway.
I emailed them two days ago looking for a price on Shane Warne to come out of retirement and play in this summers ashes series.A reasonable ask I would have thought.They refused me.
Just to see,I then emailed asking odds for Roy Keane to come out of retirement and play for Ireland during the qualifing campaign for the next world cup.Did I get odds?Of course I did.100/1
What bothers me is that theyll take my money on something completely impossible without hesitation yet wont offer me a price on something more realistic,albeit still quite a long shot.
On one hand some might call this a smart business decision.The Keane bet would be money for nothing after all.On the other hand,some might call it being a schleeveen,taking advantage of a fool or,at the very least,contradicting their "punters mate" image.Say I had been some senile oul'fella and wanted to put a couple of grand on that Keane bet?
God knows,Ive spent enough with them over the last couple of years,plain to see if they cared to look at my account.Im a 'good' customer and surely deserved at least a short quote on my Warne bet.I would have taken 3's or bigger.
Its annoyed me so much that I have now closed my account with them and will not have a bet in one of their shops again either.
Id like to know what people think.Has anybody had a similar experience?Or can someone give me some insight into why my bet was refused?Or am I just over-reacting?Doesnt it render their claim ridiculous if Ill get,in theory,a price on Shergar to be found alive and win a race at Cheltenham,or odds that Ill still be alive in five hundred years time but then I wont get quoted on say.....the Jordan F1 team making a comeback this season.

Oh,by the way,can anybody recommend a firm that might quote me a price on my Shane Warne bet?

Bobeagleburger

ElCrapula wrote: »

Paddy Power's marketing strategy has always irked me.
'Sure Paddy is one of the lads' kind of buzz.
The man himself frequently has his mug on the TV or his snot on the radio giving off this pally pally routine,"we're the punters friend" and so on.Their novelty bets are ridiculous and are just there to garner more attention/lure in fools,Eamon Dunphy to get the Sunderland job to mention just one.
I read they had an ad a while ago that claimed you can bet on anything,well....anything to do with Sports anyway.
I emailed them two days ago looking for a price on Shane Warne to come out of retirement and play in this summers ashes series.A reasonable ask I would have thought.They refused me.
Just to see,I then emailed asking odds for Roy Keane to come out of retirement and play for Ireland during the qualifing campaign for the next world cup.Did I get odds?Of course I did.100/1
What bothers me is that theyll take my money on something completely impossible without hesitation yet wont offer me a price on something more realistic,albeit still quite a long shot.
On one hand some might call this a smart business decision.The Keane bet would be money for nothing after all.On the other hand,some might call it being a schleeveen,taking advantage of a fool or,at the very least,contradicting their "punters mate" image.Say I had been some senile oul'fella and wanted to put a couple of grand on that Keane bet?
God knows,Ive spent enough with them over the last couple of years,plain to see if they cared to look at my account.Im a 'good' customer and surely deserved at least a short quote on my Warne bet.I would have taken 3's or bigger.
Its annoyed me so much that I have now closed my account with them and will not have a bet in one of their shops again either.
Id like to know what people think.Has anybody had a similar experience?Or can someone give me some insight into why my bet was refused?Or am I just over-reacting?Doesnt it render their claim ridiculous if Ill get,in theory,a price on Shergar to be found alive and win a race at Cheltenham,or odds that Ill still be alive in five hundred years time but then I wont get quoted on say.....the Jordan F1 team making a comeback this season.

Oh,by the way,can anybody recommend a firm that might quote me a price on my Shane Warne bet?

Id say Paddy Power is gutted you closed your account

ArmaniJeanss

1. This is important - No bookie is 'your pal'.
2. You can get 3/1 on your bet with Stan James and Bet Direct.

http://www.oddschecker.com/cricket/international/ashes/will-shane-warne-bowl-a-ball-in-the-2009-ashes-series

ElCrapula

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

1. This is important - No bookie is 'your pal'.
2. You can get 3/1 on your bet with Stan James and Bet Direct.

http://www.oddschecker.com/cricket/international/ashes/will-shane-warne-bowl-a-ball-in-the-2009-ashes-series

First off,thanks for the odds on that Warne bet.I am aware no bookie is my friend.I didnt say that,but thats their schtik,that how they market themselves.If theyre going to go down that road,at least try backing it up with a level of customer service,specially when you had an ad out saying that you can bet on anything.

myflipflops

1/5 on Warne not playing would be a decent bet if they offered it.

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

2. You can get 3/1 on your bet with Stan James and Bet Direct.

ArmaniJeanss

pwhite587 wrote: »

1/5 on Warne not playing would be a decent bet if they offered it.

I'm not so sure about that. Its worth remembering that he is not retired as such as he still plays 'club' cricket at a high level (IPL) so in football terms he is a bit like Jamie Carragher, Paul Scholes or Andy O'Brien (as opposed to say Roy Keane or Alan Shearer who are fully retired).
Australian cricket is in a bit of disarray, Warne was always proud to play for them, and I think he'd love a chance to put one over on the pommies again.
I wouldn't take that hypothetical 1/5.

ElCrapula

pwhite587 wrote: »

1/5 on Warne not playing would be a decent bet if they offered it.

Fill your boots on the 1/5 boys.

I'm going to say no to that one however.Heres my alternative.
Two singles and a double.

Warne to play in the ashes-3/1
Paul O'Connell to be named Lions captain-9/4,5/2 in places.A whopping 11/4 with Skybet.

Super Sidious

your overreacting... and im sure their not too worried about losing your 2euro bets on stupid things like Keane coming out of retirement... oh no!!!

ElCrapula

flynner13 wrote: »

your overreacting... and im sure their not too worried about losing your 2euro bets on stupid things like Keane coming out of retirement... oh no!!!

Think youve kind of missed my point.
I dont think you read the post either,I wasnt going to bet on keane.
I was going to bet on Warne,and alot more than two euros,I assure you.
The company isnt worried in the slightest that I closed my account and I didnt expect them to be.I'm sure they barely noticed.I didnt do it for a reaction.
I did it because I dont want to continue betting with them if they cant be fair with me.After all,they do claim that you can bet on anything.
If you went to a restaurant and got a raw steak,when the menu said it was grilled,would you go back?No.
Do you think they would be worried?No

Super Sidious

where does it say they'll take a bet on anything?

ElCrapula

flynner13 wrote: »

where does it say they'll take a bet on anything?

YAWN.I couldnt be arsed with this man.If youve got something decent to add,do it.If not,go yank someone elses chain.

Healio

ElCrapula wrote: »

If you went to a restaurant and got a raw steak,when the menu said it was grilled,would you go back?No.
Do you think they would be worried?No

To use your restaurant analogy, it looks to me as if you have gone into a restaurant that does not do steak and/or doesn't want to sell steak, but you do not accept that fact and have decide not to do business in future. At the end of the day its your choice.
Basically their menu is on show but they will do their best to accommodate you if there is something not on the menu, but they will not be obliged to do so.

T

ElCrapula

Healio wrote: »

To use your restaurant analogy, it looks to me as if you have gone into a restaurant that does not do steak and/or doesn't want to sell steak, but you do not accept that fact and have decide not to do business in future. At the end of the day its your choice.
Basically their menu is on show but they will do their best to accommodate you if there is something not on the menu, but they will not be obliged to do so.

T

Yeah,but Im going into that restaurant everyday.I eat lunch there three,four times a week.The chef could have ran around the corner to the butchers,got the steak and cooked it up for me.

myflipflops

He is officially retired from 1st class cricket. His contract with Rajasthan in the ICL is completely seperate and obviously the nature of Twenty20 cricket in the IPL is different enough from test cricket as to make them almost completely separate sports. I take your point about Carragher and Scholes but they are only officially retired from international football and still playing the sport at a level (Champions League, Premiership) that involved skill and fitness levels at least equal to international football. On the other hand, Warne hasn't played anything close to test match intensity in a couple of years.

I would agree that if asked to go back and play the Ashes, competitive instinct and pride alone would probably mean Warne would say yes. I just don't see Ponting and the selectors going to him. The sequence of events is too unlikely and there would be huge doubt over his fitness levels to last test cricket at that level.

I wouldn't back the 1/5 as i wouldn't want to invest a large sum of money until next October on something involving purely hypothetical reasoning. I do believe that 1/5 is a much bigger price than what truly reflects the possibility of him not playing in the Ashes therefore, it's a bet in my book!

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

I'm not so sure about that. Its worth remembering that he is not retired as such as he still plays 'club' cricket at a high level (IPL) so in football terms he is a bit like Jamie Carragher, Paul Scholes or Andy O'Brien (as opposed to say Roy Keane or Alan Shearer who are fully retired).
Australian cricket is in a bit of disarray, Warne was always proud to play for them, and I think he'd love a chance to put one over on the pommies again.
I wouldn't take that hypothetical 1/5.

Dun laoire

Good auld Paddypower is tops when it comes to marketing. Nobody comes close.

You see it's a bit of crack going down the pub and showing your mates that you put 1 euro on Eamon Dunphy to manage Sunderland @ 1000/1 because it gives the lads a laugh but more importantly paddypower money. We're just a bunch of gob****es lads

okidoki987

you put 1 euro on Eamon Dunphy to manage Sunderland @ 1000/1

Now you know why bookies make so much money!

redarmyblues

Paddy Power's marketing strategy has always irked me.
'Sure Paddy is one of the lads' kind of buzz.
The man himself frequently has his mug on the TV or his snot on the radio giving off this pally pally routine,"we're the punters friend" and so on.Their novelty bets are ridiculous and are just there to garner more attention/lure in fools,

I couldn't agree more. The fat Paddy Power on the TV is just a PR guy, I think he changed his name by deed poll. The crazy zany undergraduate tone on the website drives me daft. However the PR works, some people really love them, I cast a cold eye on what I thought was a spammy thread (see Paddy Power Jan Sale) and I was practically cyberlynched.

While their marketing works wonders they are weak on the bookmaking side. They have put up specials on football that overbroke their markets, ie If A or B scores last we wil refund all WDW bets in a 108% market where the dutch on A or B scoring last is 7/4. This is not generosity, no professional odds compiler will deliberately put up an over broke market.

okidoki987

However the PR works, some people really love them,

Nobody in that thread actually said anything like.

I cast a cold eye on what I thought was a spammy thread (see Paddy Power Jan Sale) and I was practically cyberlynched.

What they said was that PP had given odds that looked like great value for 1 day only and that was all that was discussed.

It could have Boylers, Ladbrokes or Hills but it just happened to be PP on that day.

They have put up specials on football that overbroke their markets, ie If A or B scores last we wil refund all WDW bets in a 108% market where the dutch on A or B scoring last is 7/4. This is not generosity

I wouldn't disagree with you on this point.

Mezcita

Interesting thread.

Way I see it is there is absolutely no reason betting just with one bookie. Fundamentally if you bet regularly, you should be getting the best prices possible on any potential winner, be it from PP and their "zany" ad campaigns or any of the other interweb bookies. Loyalty means feck all to bookies and the reality is that if you have a good winning run with any bookie, they will just close your account or limit you.

Regarding the idea of quoting on anything, it's just another stunt. I would presume that when somebody rings up looking for a price on an unusual bet they think that the person has inside information.

They market themselves to draw in Joe Public and I presume that it works given their success in the last 10 years.

ArmaniJeanss

redarmyblues wrote: »

While their marketing works wonders they are weak on the bookmaking side. They have put up specials on football that overbroke their markets, ie If A or B scores last we wil refund all WDW bets in a 108% market where the dutch on A or B scoring last is 7/4. This is not generosity, no professional odds compiler will deliberately put up an over broke market.

Isn't this a good thing from this boards point of view though. I want as many value bets possible as possible pointed out to me, loads of <100% markets, as many arbs as there are going.
If PPs is the bookmaker that makes all these bets then there are going to be a lot of PP posts, but I'm not sure why you see this as a problem on this or the other thread?

okidoki987

I think you'll find that there's an 8% margin for the bookie on that market.
So you have no chance of any arb unless the line comes close to 100%.
Then you can pick and chose which selection to back and with whom.

Mellor

redarmyblues wrote: »

I couldn't agree more. The fat Paddy Power on the TV is just a PR guy, I think he changed his name by deed poll.

He didn't change his name, he is the son of one of the founding directors.
Three bookies, one was a Mr. Power (who had a son called paddy), joined up to form paddy power. The PR job was perfect for the son when he grew up. Their marketing is by far better than any other bookie, online or otherwise. (Laddies do a better sponsorship program mind). But they re-coup this cost through odds and similar.

And as for "you can bet on anything". I'm pretty sure this meant you can bet on any sport (within reason), not you can have any bet. The OP is being a bit pedantic over the wording imo.

redarmyblues

I worked for them for a short time late 80,s early 90,s.
As far as I remember it was a merger between Kenny O Reilly and David Power and did the money come from the Corcoran family/Green Property?

So maybe Fatty is David Powers son?

The thing is most mugs out there think that the plump one is Paddy Powerthe way Victor Chandler is Victor Chandler.

Chucky the tree

ElCrapula wrote: »

Yeah,but Im going into that restaurant everyday.I eat lunch there three,four times a week.The chef could have ran around the corner to the butchers,got the steak and cooked it up for me.

:pac:

Go into any restraunt and try say that.