Skip to main content

Monday news

Haven't got the motivation for a long post, so here are some brief items about what's going on in the world....

Much of my traffic comes from other bloggers - do you fancy getting a free makeover for your blog? Most of us don't have the design skills to do it, but this guy does, and he has some brilliant culinary tips as well - ZestyCook

Mark Davies, MD and one of the originals at Betfair, has a laugh about how bookie CEOs just don't get it and keep on giving Betfair free publicity at every opportunity.

The Tasmanian government have reacted to Betfair Aus's idle threats about moving interstate (or was it rumours of other govts luring them) by offering more tax breaks to sustain employment in the Apple Isle.

Leading Australian jockey Danny Nikolic could be deep in the brown stuff if the latest stewards investigation into suspicious betting activities on Betfair uncovers any concrete evidence. I'm a big fan of Nikolic, there is no Australian jockey I'd rather be on one of my horses if it was leading the race, but it is high time that a scandal in Australian racing uncovered and punished the perpetrators. No idea if Danny is involved or not, but for the good of the industry, it needs to show that it can identify crooked activity (which happened long before the arrival of Betfair, it's not a new thing) and prosecute a case against it.

The scandals in Chinese football continue as two clubs face relegation for match-fixing. This comes after recent news of players gaining national caps via bribing selectors.

Canny Irish trainer Gordon Elliot landed a 20/1 into 2/1 plunge at Punchestown last week by perfectly working around the 90 days rule. If the horse had run any sooner than the 91 days since its last start, the stewards would have called connections in to explain the sudden improvement in performance.

The UK went EastEnders crazy last week with bookies reaping the benefits of the 25yr anniversary live episode. Kudos to Bodog I believe for being the initiator of the market, which every other firm seemed to follow like sheep.

Leading Australian bookmaker Con Kafataris will be sadly missed in the Sydney betting ring, but don't cry for him not being able to make it pay anymore, he's loaded as the main shareholder of Centrebet.

Ladbrokes are following Victor Chandler into South Africa via a partnership deal with an African casino group.

and I'm getting quite frustrated with the Olympics after backing/tipping two biathletes only to have them win gold in a different event....

Comments

  1. How long until the News Ltd papers, in particular the Daily Telegraph, blame the Nikolic scandal solely on Betfair? I expect Tabcorps NSW spokesperson, Ray Thomas, to lead the charge.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Herald-Sun won't, well maybe Tabcorp mouthpiece Rod Nicholson, but the rest of them are relatively young and embrace competition and new technology. If you live NSW though, that's almost against the law!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks for your comments, but if you're a spammer, you've just wasted your time - it won't get posted.

Popular posts from this blog

It's all gone Pete Tong at Betfair!

The Christmas Hurdle from Leopardstown, a good Grade 2 race during the holiday period. But now it will go into history as the race which brought Betfair down. Over £21m at odds of 29 available on Voler La Vedette in-running - that's a potential liability of over £500m. You might think that's a bit suspicious, something's fishy, especially with the horse starting at a Betfair SP of 2.96. Well, this wasn't a horse being stopped by a jockey either - the bloody horse won! Look at what was matched at 29. Split that in half and multiply by 28 for the actual liability for the layer(s). (Matched amounts always shown as double the backers' stake, never counts the layers' risk). There's no way a Betfair client would have £600m+ in their account. Maybe £20 or even £50m from the massive syndicates who regard(ed) Betfair as safer than any bank, but not £600m. So the error has to be something technical. However, rumour has it, a helpdesk reply (not gospel, natur

Betdaq.... sold...... FOR HOW MUCH???

So as rumoured for a while, Ladbrokes have finally acquired the lemon, sorry, purple-coloured betting exchange, Betdaq. For a mind-boggling €30m as 'initial consideration'. That's an even more ridiculous price than Fernando Torres for £50m, or any English player Liverpool have purchased in recent seasons! As I've written previously there are no logical business reasons for this acquisition. from Nov 29, 2012 The Racing Post reported this week that Ladbrokes are nearing a decision to acquire Betdaq. This baffles me, it really does. Betdaq are a complete and utter lemon. Their only rival in the market has kicked so many own goals over the years with the premium charge, followed by an increase in the premium charge, cost of API and data use, customer service standards which have fallen faster than Facebook share value, site crashes and various other faults. So many pissed off Betfair customers, yet Betdaq are still tailed off with a lap to go. Around the world, Betfair

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...