Gala Coral is 'worthless' according to equity firm investor

That can't be good to hear when you've pumped £5 billion into a business.

"Gala Coral was formed by a merger between Gala and Coral Eurobet in 2005, but its component parts have been through a series of private equity owners in the past decade. The company has £4.4 billion of debt, including shareholder loans of £1.6 billion, but is operating within its banking covenants."

"Gala Coral, which employs 19,000 people and operates 1,566 Coral betting shops, 165 bingo halls and 31 casinos, has struggled since the double whammy in 2007 of the smoking ban and the scrapping of lucrative high-payout gaming machines."

Read the Times article here.

The betting shop real estate is probably the most valuable thing in the portfolio so it's not as if the bookie itself will go bust. If push came to shove, someone would buy it. But when a corporation is over four billion pounds in debt, things can go pear-shaped very quickly...

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It's all gone Pete Tong at Betfair!

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lay the field - my favourite racing strategy

Dabbling with laying the field in-running at various prices today, not just one price, but several in the same race. Got several matched in the previous race at Brighton, then this race came along at Nottingham. Such a long straight at Nottingham makes punters often over-react and think the finish line is closer than it actually is. As you can see by the number of bets matched, there was plenty of volatility in this in-play market. It's rare you'll get a complete wipe-out with one horse getting matched at all levels, but it can happen, so don't give yourself too much risk...

Wimbledon preview - women

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