"Britain at the Bookies"

okidoki987 · 22-07-2015 12:38pm #1

BBC1 doing a 3 part documentary about bookies in the UK, 1st episode was Monday night (Repeated 12.05am tonight).

1st episode was a "PR" documentary mostly about Coral and the different aspects of the industry.
Got a look at the Coral trading room and the traders, not a massive number of traders considering the amount of markets they do.

There was a look at a chronic gambler who was addicted to the slot machines.
He was unemployed, on the social and got £147 every 2 weeks.
Played roulette on the machines called FOBT for a stake for £9 on every spin on odds or evens!
He ended up with only £5 to last him 14 days until the next cheque from the social arrived. :eek:.
He has since got a job as a chief and has given up gambling.

Next bloke was a professional gambler who ended up being banned/closed by most of the bookies.
Over 50% of the shops profits are now on FOBT's!
That is an astonishing number:eek:.

They spent a lot of the time following a manager of a couple of shops in Huddersfield.
Nothing exciting apart from some bloke in a shop who had been barred and looked like he going to kick off but didn't.

Best bit of the programme was Simon the PR man who thought up the offer of "Man Utd to win a corner at 5/1" to max stake of £5 for new accounts, basically giving people a free £25.
They opened 3,000 new accounts in 10 minutes :eek:.

Next week (9pm Monday) is all about the Saturday afternoon battle between punter and bookmaker.

Gregk961 · 25-07-2015 11:04am

okidoki987 wrote: »

BBC1 doing a 3 part documentary about bookies in the UK, 1st episode was Monday night (Repeated 12.05am tonight).

1st episode was a "PR" documentary mostly about Coral and the different aspects of the industry.
Got a look at the Coral trading room and the traders, not a massive number of traders considering the amount of markets they do.

There was a look at a chronic gambler who was addicted to the slot machines.
He was unemployed, on the social and got £147 every 2 weeks.
Played roulette on the machines called FOBT for a stake for £9 on every spin on odds or evens!
He ended up with only £5 to last him 14 days until the next cheque from the social arrived. :eek:.
He has since got a job as a chief and has given up gambling.

Next bloke was a professional gambler who ended up being banned/closed by most of the bookies.
Over 50% of the shops profits are now on FOBT's!
That is an astonishing number:eek:.

They spent a lot of the time following a manager of a couple of shops in Huddersfield.
Nothing exciting apart from some bloke in a shop who had been barred and looked like he going to kick off but didn't.

Best bit of the programme was Simon the PR man who thought up the offer of "Man Utd to win a corner at 5/1" to max stake of £5 for new accounts, basically giving people a free £25.
They opened 3,000 new accounts in 10 minutes :eek:.

Next week (9pm Monday) is all about the Saturday afternoon battle between punter and bookmaker.

Just caught up with this during the week and I thought it was very good. Nothing that we didn't know in there but the personal stories were the kicker. Was honestly rooting for the gambling addict walking past the betting shops on his way to the ATM. Very sad story, just a lonely man with a problem.

Looking forward to the next part.

Cartel Mike · 25-07-2015 5:13pm

There definitely always seems to be a big correlation between gambling & lonliness.

Very good program .

The guy who made alot also seemed to have alot to start with but the common factor again seemed to be lonliness.

Gregk961 · 25-07-2015 6:47pm

Cartel Mike wrote: »

There definitely always seems to be a big correlation between gambling & lonliness.

Very good program .

The guy who made alot also seemed to have alot to start with but the common factor again seemed to be lonliness.

One problem I actually had with it was that the guy who was a succesful/non compulsive gambler was a professional by nature whereas the unemployed dole claimer was obviously a compulsive loser at gambling as well. Pretty easy to paint the picture that way but it comes from all walks of life.

Arrow in the Knee · 25-07-2015 7:11pm

I would like them to go into more detail about the traders at Coral or another bookmaker.

Also when one of the traders was on the phone he said supposedly to the shop assistant "do you recognise him 'the bettor' " while talking about a bet.

The trading room was fairly quiet but it was probably in the morning.

The Engineer making a Sizeable profit from MOTM bets in Rugby or other markets.

I was surprised how some of the punters in the shop's were talkative and frank on camera.

What was that Coral shop's profit for the week and is that the usual profit per betting shop?

the groutch · 25-07-2015 7:43pm

okidoki987 wrote: »

There was a look at a chronic gambler who was addicted to the slot machines.
He was unemployed, on the social and got £147 every 2 weeks.
Played roulette on the machines called FOBT for a stake for £9 on every spin on odds or evens!
He ended up with only £5 to last him 14 days until the next cheque from the social arrived. :eek:.

Over 50% of the shops profits are now on FOBT's!
That is an astonishing number:eek:.

FOBTs are pure evil, hopefully they're never legalised over here.

JONJO THE MISER · 25-07-2015 7:49pm

Arrow in the Knee wrote: »

Also when one of the traders was on the phone he said supposedly to the shop assistant "do you recognise him 'the bettor' " while talking about a bet.
/QUOTE]

All the big bookies do this if you want big bets or bet on obscure markets, they want to know if your a regular losing customer or a person who knows what there doing, the only time i bet in the high street bookies now is for political bets and im cut to nothing, they would have a picture of me somewhere in head office taken from cctv and a nickname on me and comments under it either to take any bet or dont take any bets depending if your a winner or loser they would have thousands of other big punters pictures as well.
Of course this is not legal from a data protection point of view but no one ever seems to investigate this.

okidoki987 · 26-07-2015 4:46pm

the only time i bet in the high street bookies now is for political bets and im cut to nothing, they would have a picture of me somewhere in head office taken from cctv and a nickname on me and comments under it either to take any bet or dont take any bets depending if your a winner or loser they would have thousands of other big punters pictures as well.

Easier to get someone you know to place the bet for you?

Arrow in the Knee · 26-07-2015 4:52pm

Tomorrow 9pm
2nd Episode Punter vs Bookie

"The battle between punter and bookie plays out over one big race day in Doncaster."

I hope its not going to be all at the track.

JONJO THE MISER · 26-07-2015 6:09pm

okidoki987 wrote: »

Easier to get someone you know to place the bet for you?

Yeah i do that, but they take peanuts now on Politics with P.P, cut the odds to where there is no value with a few hundred and Ladbrokes which were the best with some of the value on there political betting no longer do as many markets on it.
To be honest that is all i bet on with the bookies on the high street now, do all my betting with matchbook and Pinnacle who wont cut or ban you for winning.

okidoki987 · 27-07-2015 7:28pm

Reminder it's on tonight at 9pm.

Arrow in the Knee · 27-07-2015 8:15pm

okidoki987 wrote: »

Reminder it's on tonight at 9pm.

I'm going to have to watch it tomorrow night.

Anybody watching it tonight, could you give a review of it?
That would be great.

fuzzydunlop85 · 27-07-2015 10:06pm

Arrow in the Knee wrote: »

I'm going to have to watch it tomorrow night.

Anybody watching it tonight, could you give a review of it?
That would be great.

Missed the first episode but enjoyed that. Good insight into coral trading room on a busy Saturday at Doncaster and punters/bookies at the track. Also follow racing post golf tipster Steve Palmer as he struggles to build up his bankroll with a baby on the way.

The_Kew_Tour · 28-07-2015 2:02am

Watched the 1st episode today, hope catch other when up on YouTube.

That Poor lad on benefits you could see his weight loss even in the 2 weeks. Hope he has kept that Chef job. Those Fixed odds machines are the death of addictive gamblers over in UK.

I remember when I went to College over in Wales about 9-10 years ago got bit addicted to them myself. Problem was I won at the start and then thought this was easy. Must have lost about £300 which for student can be lot of money(was equipment of about 450e at time). Was actually wake up call for me when came home to Ireland.

Now I enjoy betting and can actually wait months for bets on certain Sports it really was a blessing and never bet what I cannot afford. But for so many its runied lives. That Benefits chap, must be thousands like him, just barely surviving. To win £3k and blow it the same day, that's when it's beyond control.

The Coral manager seems like nice man but at same time I did not like his smugness in seeing Punters lose or seeing people lose jobs. Even when he was asked the Question on Punters I felt he gave a answer he wanted the public to hear rather then his honest opinion. He just reminds me of few Managers in Shops. I understand they have a Shop to run etc, but they could be more professional.

okidoki987 · 28-07-2015 12:37pm

Last night's episode was all about Punter v Bookie and better than the first one.
The followed Steve Palmer around who writes for the RP and is a golf betting "advisor" and has had some good results in the past but one thing that amazed me is how "little" he bets, stake wise, single figures at times.
Thought the couple at the races had some pretty impressive results considering how they picked some of their horses :eek:.
Coral trading room was pretty impressive but didn't get to see too much about how it operates, only what they wanted you to see.
Strange they would be able to back with another bookie though?
Unless they did it in a shop, would have thought the opposition wouldn't let them back with them?
Fair dues to the punter who got £5k on the Fav at Donnie at 2/1 (Elm Park), last time I tried I couldn't get £50 on a 5/4 shot with them.
Punters in the shops are probably the same you would see in any high street bookie, UK or Ireland, all trying to win using whatever means they can. On Course Bookie "only" needed to make £400 per race to break even so would assume his fixed costs are around £2500 per meeting?
Sounds a lot considering he only had 2 other staff.
In the race where the owner backed the winner at 18/1 (£20 e/w :eek:

), the bookie said it would cost him £500 if it won.
He must have either taken nothing on the fav or nothing else of note on the race as the winner was the outside of 5 or 6 horses.

Next weeks will be an eye opener to anyone who hasn't seen a FOBT in action.
Basically a slot machine with roulette, poker etc on it, I'm sure there will be stories of guys who have lost thousands on them, punters with wrecked marraiges due to slot machines etc.

peacock169 · 28-07-2015 10:31pm

Enjoyed the couple at the racetrack, he didn't seem the type to ever loose the run of himself and get caught for big money. Refreshing to see. They made me smile anyway.

The lad who writes for the Racing Post, the golf tipster, wish the programme had of elaborated on his previous wins, only mentioned 2 big wins. Can't help feel he may have got lucky, and was not down to strategy, or a system. Although he does have a column, sure what do I know. He also backed dogs, and horses and darts, and most likely a lot of other things. Did not match my image of a successful tipster.

Enjoyed watching it, except for my missus in my ear, calling everyone fools, and constantly asking to put on one of the million episodes of Dr. Phil she has recorded.

ceadaoin. · 29-07-2015 9:31am

peacock169 wrote: »

Enjoyed the couple at the racetrack, he didn't seem the type to ever loose the run of himself and get caught for big money. Refreshing to see. They made me smile anyway.

The lad who writes for the Racing Post, the golf tipster, wish the programme had of elaborated on his previous wins, only mentioned 2 big wins. Can't help feel he may have got lucky, and was not down to strategy, or a system. Although he does have a column, sure what do I know. He also backed dogs, and horses and darts, and most likely a lot of other things. Did not match my image of a successful tipster.

Enjoyed watching it, except for my missus in my ear, calling everyone fools, and constantly asking to put on one of the million episodes of Dr. Phil she has recorded.

The golf tipster fella didn't seem very shrewd to me. It seemed like he was a compulsive gambler tbh. Felt sorry for his wife.

mickey1979 · 30-07-2015 11:14am

Steve Palmer neglected to mention he is a pretty good Golf Tipster but prob made serious money writing a book on his up's and downs as a punter. No use at anything bar golf nor does he claim to be

The_Kew_Tour · 30-07-2015 9:14pm

2nd episode was lot more enjoyable as you kinda saw more of the Good side then the bad.

Arrow in the Knee · 30-07-2015 11:32pm

So I watched it last night.

The couple.
First off, he bagged a good looking girl!
He seemed knowledgeable, clued in
ie:the syndicate around the other horse and big hooves on soft ground and he was picking horses at good odds.

Steve Palmer. "This will not be beaten"
I was impressed that he won doing a double on two different golf tournaments and winning. 'Hard enough to pick one!'
I would like to see more of him on TV.

The horse racing traders seemed like they were putting a fair chunk of money on the horses.

The posh bookmaker. It didn't go into too much detail?

The On Course bookie hymen and hawnen about taken a bet of 20 pound each way on an 18/1 outsider and worst of all the owner of that horse given them I think 60 pound back for drinks WTF!

Enjoyable episode.

Warper · 31-07-2015 6:48pm

Didn't see the first one but liked the second one. Really enjoyed the guy from the racing post, he seemed like good craic and obv knows his stuff esp about golf. The guy likes a bet as well and enjoys gambling and is good at it.

The couple at the races looked to be tight as hell to me. The guy seemed to think he knew it all and was irritating to me anyways. Fair play to him for backing winners with his one pound stakes. Seems the type of guy that would miss his round on a night out.

The traders were good fun as well.

Overall good show

The_Kew_Tour · 04-08-2015 9:57pm

When is 3rd episode on?

Copper_pipe · 05-08-2015 12:27am

Was on last night

okidoki987 · 05-08-2015 12:48am

Repeated BBC1 11.35pm Wednesday.

The_Kew_Tour · 05-08-2015 12:48am

Copper_pipe wrote: »

Was on last night

Cheers

Hope catch it on YouTube during week

Copper_pipe · 05-08-2015 12:59am

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

Cheers

Hope catch it on YouTube during week

i tweeted you a link

:D

Realist2 · 05-08-2015 1:13am

I thought it was sick watching that young lad throw all his childs money into the FOBT on Monday, i wouldn't mind but them machines are obviously computerised, at least in a casino its random, they say they are random, so one day i played them once to test it, i put 5 on red, came black, 10 on red, came black, 20 on red came black, 40 on red came black and then 80 on red came black after that i never came back to play them, the English government have put a tax of 25% on every one of those machines, so u are nearly down before u start, to me they seem like the most stupid thing to bet on, I've seen lads break them, throw stools at them, when they lose, the reason they get angry is because they have to take the anger out on something, because its there own fault and they can't blame themselves because they look stupid, i was in the bookies the other day and i literally watched a young fella around 25 throw nearly 3 grand into one of those machines when i was doing some football bets the other day, he kept going over to the counter with his debit card saying another 100, another 100, i would just turn around a minute later and he said another 100, i think they transfer the money onto the machine because they didn't give the hundreds in cash, beyond belief

Hulk Hands · 05-08-2015 9:49pm

JONJO THE MISER wrote: »

All the big bookies do this if you want big bets or bet on obscure markets, they want to know if your a regular losing customer or a person who knows what there doing, the only time i bet in the high street bookies now is for political bets and im cut to nothing, they would have a picture of me somewhere in head office taken from cctv and a nickname on me and comments under it either to take any bet or dont take any bets depending if your a winner or loser they would have thousands of other big punters pictures as well.
Of course this is not legal from a data protection point of view but no one ever seems to investigate this.

This is absolute nonsense and illegal. Is there camera's above the counter with lads in headoffice watching away or something? Of course they would have a profile on you if you are going in putting on bets on what are essentially novelty markets, political bets. How on earth can you expect to be getting a few hundred quid on jokeshop markets like political bets? Bookies do profile winning large staking shop customers with the aim of getting their large stakes rang over so a decision can be made at headoffice. None of this is done with CCTV or photgraphs however, and anyone complaining about getting political bets rang over and refused deserves the conptempt with which they are being treated

Hulk Hands · 05-08-2015 9:55pm

Watched all 3 episodes there. Hard to think of too many in the show that came out with credit! Simon Clare is a nauseating fker, the bane of the online gambling community for a while now. Thought some of the Coral Traders came off terribly. One lad backing horses because they had 'louie' in their name. You're letting this lad set your odds, no wonder Coral's online business is pathetic. And seriously, take betfair off yer screens lads if its going to be broadcast across a nation. We already know you're copying, just dont make it obvious. Fobt's are obviously a huge issue, and have been for a while now. Had a good laugh at the 'pro punter' mugging away 4k on board price favs in Corals box. Steve Palmer is good fun if completely confirming his muggish tendencies that his column suggests. Good tv all in all

Peintre Celebre · 06-08-2015 9:17am

Hulk Hands wrote: »

Watched all 3 episodes there. Hard to think of too many in the show that came out with credit! Simon Clare is a nauseating fker, the bane of the online gambling community for a while now. Thought some of the Coral Traders came off terribly. One lad backing horses because they had 'louie' in their name. You're letting this lad set your odds, no wonder Coral's online business is pathetic. And seriously, take betfair off yer screens lads if its going to be broadcast across a nation. We already know you're copying, just dont make it obvious. Fobt's are obviously a huge issue, and have been for a while now. Had a good laugh at the 'pro punter' mugging away 4k on board price favs in Corals box. Steve Palmer is good fun if completely confirming his muggish tendencies that his column suggests. Good tv all in all

He seemed like some mug, 'if a race is starting on the screen beside me I'll want to back something'', sounds like something one the lads you see in the same bookies day in day out would say. Yeah that pro punter must really be doing well to get invited to a box with them. Seemed like a pain in the arse. A general rule in life: If you can hear someone before you see them, they're usually a moron

The_Kew_Tour · 06-08-2015 10:31am

It was mixed bag but Pro Punter, the FOBt guy and the Greyhound fellas should be put down, for their own good.

"Britain at the Bookies"

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