Cheltenham (UK) 16:55
Boa Island
need: 5/2 (3.44, +244, 29%)
available: 7/1 (10.00 BF exchange @13:25 UTC)
stake: 5.25% (Kelly * 0.25)
Taunton (UK) 17:25
Listen To The Man
need: 3/5 (1.61, -164, 62%)
available: 9/10'(2.00 BF exchange @13:25 UTC)
stake: 5.20% (Kelly * 0.25
Caution with Boa Island. It has drifted from 4's early to 7-1 now, (and 10.00 on the exchange) which has made it the overlay it now is.
Edit: Boa Island NR just after I posted
Quote:
Originally Posted by dundalk
Not sure if anyone really cares, but, heres a pic of a local fibresand meeting, on a particularly cold and patron-less mid-week meeting.
http://imgur.com/gallery/qUGWf
Pitch fee £93, wages £100, Petrol £20, joint rental £20 .. total expenses £233,
As a bookie, took, 170 bets .. total take - £2100 .. profit £165 .. so, lost net £68.
Pointless working crap pitches, especially mid-week.
I feel ya dundalk. I'm not a bookie but it's pretty much the same in my neck of the woods (Australia), and probably for the same reasons - Live TV coverage, online bookmakers, the exchange, as well as there being so many other options for the punter now.
I'm in my 50's so I remember the 100+ bookmakers at a Saturday meeting and the crowds of 20k. Even the Monday/Thursday night greyhounds had a packed ring. Now a midweek Flemington meeting resembles the pic you posted. Maybe 5 on-course layers. Books set at 140%+ until liquidity comes in on the exchange.
It's just not worth going to the track if you want to take a fixed price anymore.
I do fear more for the industry in the UK though. I don't know how UK trainers/owners survive on prizemoney alone and the need for trainers to land a touch probably doesn't help anything. At least in other jurisdictions decent prizemoney helps and professional stipes keep the game somewhat honest. The need for UK trainers/owners to land a touch probably doesn't help.
Racing will survive, but the landscape for the punter/bookmaker has changed forever
Last edited by daonna; 04-20-2017 at 10:14 AM.
Reason: non-runner