The European flat racing season comes to its natural conclusion in this messed up hell of a year. The queen of the turf, Enable, goes for an historic third win but it has been wet and cold all week in Paris, making it a tough old slog in deep ground. There won't be much of a crowd there to 'bring the house down' if she wins, in front of no more than 1000 paying spectators, but the racing world will be tuning in across the globe.
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Prix de L'Arc de Triomphe ParisLongchamp, 1605 local, 1505 BST, 0005 Monday Sydney time. 2400m, Group 1 Weight-for-Age, (no geldings) Approx €3m. Expected Going - Heavy. 1.Persian King - 4yo, Kingman/Pretty Please - Andre Fabre - Pierre Charles Boudot Star French colt stepping up to a mile and a half for the first time. Won the French 2000 Guineas (Poulains) on heavy ground but ran fourth (only time in his career finishing worse than second) in the Jacques Le Marois, almost nine lengths behind P…
Prix de L'Arc de Triomphe ParisLongchamp, 1605 local, 1505 BST, 0005 Monday Sydney time. 2400m, Group 1 Weight-for-Age, (no geldings) Approx €3m. Expected Going - Heavy. 1.Persian King - 4yo, Kingman/Pretty Please - Andre Fabre - Pierre Charles Boudot Star French colt stepping up to a mile and a half for the first time. Won the French 2000 Guineas (Poulains) on heavy ground but ran fourth (only time in his career finishing worse than second) in the Jacques Le Marois, almost nine lengths behind P…
Hi Scott
ReplyDeleteBeen reading your column for a few months now. You seem to be a man with access to a lot of information and realise you might be able to help me understand the logic behind the banning of in play sport in Australia and how is Horse racing not a sport.
I've been trading tennis full time for while now and for family reasons have to move to Australia. As I'm not able to trade in play I wonder if I could have them up for restraint of trade ;)
Thanks
Derek
Hi Derek,
ReplyDeleteAustralian state govts are addicted to poker (fruit/slot) machines more than any punter, they are everywhere, with the exception of WA. The states have sold off all their assets and now survive too heavily on revenue from speed cameras and those evil poker machines. The anti-gambling lobby holds enough power in the media (and thus with govts) that the govt had to do something to stop the sharp increase in problem gambling that comes with those pointless one-armed bandits. But, if they banned them, it would screw every state govt and close down a lot of pubs, which also rely on them. So the govt decided to make a big song and dance about shutting down betting in-running before it had effectively started, because it 'might' become the crack cocaine of gambling, allowing punters to bet on crazy things, like next goal, next game won etc, and quickly blow their cash. At the time, the TABs, which held the power (and mostly still do) for sports betting weren't technologically capable of offering such a service anyway, so it didn't cost the govts anything to ban it. The hypocrisy of still being able to place the same bets via a voice call over the very same phone line didn't seem to concern anyone.
There's a review of that legislation currently underway, every company is calling for it, the reports commissioned have called for it... so thus the govt will probably ignore it like everything else that they can't see votes in.
It really is a ridiculous piece of legislation and one reason why I'm quite happy living in the UK. Of course, it only affects betting firms licensed within Australia, so if you choose to bet with Bet365, Betdaq, Hills etc, they won't stop you...
Thanks for that Scott.
ReplyDeleteInteresting the effect on the market if it was legal to gamble in Australia and USA.
Was at a Betfair seminar in Brisbane earlier this year and the general consensus there was that there was a significant number of people 'in play' betting in those countries by various other means. Obviously difficult to put a number on it.
Enjoy your blog.
Derek