Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[tikay]

Didn't know Palazzo even had one

It is by far and away the best

You never tried Wm Hill's shop in Paddington?

[TightEnd]

Caesars $235 this afternoon

126 runners, $10k up top

[tikay]

Caesars $235 this afternoon

126 runners, $10k up top

Marv.

First time all trip I've not had my Sky Poker patch on (in deference to the APAT Sponsors) & you snap the first & only photo taken of me the whole trip!

Excellent job you are doing there with the APAT gang. From Broadway Birmingham 5 years back to Caesars Palace, Las Vegas. Some journey.

Good to see Ger & the gang, Shaz, Joobs & Sharpy, HoldyFoldy (looking absolutely radiant), Dawn, Jack, & Co.

AndrewT was a bit of a sight for sore eyes, though, he looked a mess. Not as much of a mess as the Taxi he was in the previous night though, though, I gather.

[tikay]

For the few who enjoy "business talk", & the many who are bookie haters, yesterday was an interesting day at the SB&G office.....

Here's the Press Release.....

"Bookies get battered

Sky Bet were left licking their wounds after enduring the worst day in their history as virtually all of the favourites prevailed from Saturday’s football action.

A week after the online bookmaker saw their ‘What If’ accumulator of England, Republic of Ireland, Scotland and Wales come in at 60/1, the ‘What if the table toppers triumph’ paid out to thousands at 7/1 with Manchester City, Southampton, Charlton and Southend all winning.

That added to an expensive afternoon when short-priced Premier League favourites Arsenal, Manchester City and Manchester United all claimed victories, with an enhanced 50/1 accumulator of Charlton, MK Dons, Huddersfield, Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday also paying out, while one lucky punter made £45k off a £5 15-team multiple.

Sky Bet’s Head of Football Trading Sandro Di Michele said: “Pretty much everything that could of gone wrong for us today did, with the ‘What If’ market just one of our enhanced accumulators to have come in.

“You know it’s a bad day when you’re relying on Manchester United and Barcelona losing to turn things around, but we hardly made things easy for ourselves by picking out back-to-back winning accumulators for the punters in our ‘What If’ specials.”

[tikay]

It's the very nature of bookmaking - volatility.

On the flip side, of course, volatility is what bookies get rich on. Every week, without fail, punters link all the odds on certainties in accas, (why?!) & 19 weeks out of 20, one loses, = sparkling results. For the bookie.

So, a huge loss for "Bet" on the day, but unless things go spectacularly amiss, they will still turn a profit on the trading week, which runs from Friday to Thursday.

Oddly, even Kauto Star's wonderful win did not stop it being a good day on the horses, though on much smaller volume.

Abd despite that huge loss yesterday, SB&G still turned a profit on the day, amazingly. "Vegas" (slots) is a massive site, which turns over, every single day, massive amounts, & on a virtually guaranteed, though small, margin. No volatility there, either. Except, that when the punters have a good day, a lot of the "windfall" cash finds it's way across to Vegas, & Poker, & we see much bigger numbers than usual.

Poker & Bingo have almost zero volatility (for the Room, I mean!), either, & they chuck in solid amounts 7 days per week. We can assess the daily Poker "margin" (Reg Fees & cash rake) & Bingo margin to within + or - a few %, day on day, week on week, it is utterly predictable.

Toasty indeed, to be the other side of the Table, in a multi-function, common wallet, Online gaming site.

[Claw75]

For the few who enjoy "business talk", & the many who are bookie haters, yesterday was an interesting day at the SB&G office.....

Here's the Press Release.....

"Bookies get battered

Sky Bet were left licking their wounds after enduring the worst day in their history as virtually all of the favourites prevailed from Saturday’s football action.

A week after the online bookmaker saw their ‘What If’ accumulator of England, Republic of Ireland, Scotland and Wales come in at 60/1, the ‘What if the table toppers triumph’ paid out to thousands at 7/1 with Manchester City, Southampton, Charlton and Southend all winning.

That added to an expensive afternoon when short-priced Premier League favourites Arsenal, Manchester City and Manchester United all claimed victories, with an enhanced 50/1 accumulator of Charlton, MK Dons, Huddersfield, Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday also paying out, while one lucky punter made £45k off a £5 15-team multiple.

Sky Bet’s Head of Football Trading Sandro Di Michele said: “Pretty much everything that could of gone wrong for us today did, with the ‘What If’ market just one of our enhanced accumulators to have come in.

“You know it’s a bad day when you’re relying on Manchester United and Barcelona losing to turn things around, but we hardly made things easy for ourselves by picking out back-to-back winning accumulators for the punters in our ‘What If’ specials.”

ah this explains how my luckbox brother walked away with £2k from a £20 bet yesterday.  Nice touch before xmas!

[GreekStein]

Tony what do you think of Sky Bet? They have a reputation for not laying decent sized bets, no?

[tikay]

For the few who enjoy "business talk", & the many who are bookie haters, yesterday was an interesting day at the SB&G office.....

Here's the Press Release.....

"Bookies get battered

Sky Bet were left licking their wounds after enduring the worst day in their history as virtually all of the favourites prevailed from Saturday’s football action.

A week after the online bookmaker saw their ‘What If’ accumulator of England, Republic of Ireland, Scotland and Wales come in at 60/1, the ‘What if the table toppers triumph’ paid out to thousands at 7/1 with Manchester City, Southampton, Charlton and Southend all winning.

That added to an expensive afternoon when short-priced Premier League favourites Arsenal, Manchester City and Manchester United all claimed victories, with an enhanced 50/1 accumulator of Charlton, MK Dons, Huddersfield, Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday also paying out, while one lucky punter made £45k off a £5 15-team multiple.

Sky Bet’s Head of Football Trading Sandro Di Michele said: “Pretty much everything that could of gone wrong for us today did, with the ‘What If’ market just one of our enhanced accumulators to have come in.

“You know it’s a bad day when you’re relying on Manchester United and Barcelona losing to turn things around, but we hardly made things easy for ourselves by picking out back-to-back winning accumulators for the punters in our ‘What If’ specials.”

ah this explains how my luckbox brother walked away with £2k from a £20 bet yesterday.  Nice touch before xmas!

Absolutely, Claire. Yesterday was a great day for "regular" punters, if they did not have a nice win yesterday they never will, it was "open season".

LOADS of punters had nice accas up. One kid won £45k from a fiver acca! Strangely, it is good for business. Winning punters almost always re-invest......punting is no different to roulette, really - the answer lies in the maths, once critical mass is achieved. When, say, 50,000 folks make the same acca, it only takes one "bad" result to kill 50,000 bets.....

Yesterday was just one of those odd days. It's not often that the 2 Manchester Teams  - & Manchester teams have a lot of followers, to put it mildly - have such soft opponents on the same day.

[tikay]

Tony what do you think of Sky Bet? They have a reputation for not laying decent sized bets, no?

Wow, such an open goal that question, if it were from anyone else, peeps would think it was a "planted" question........

OK, I'll answer it.....been waiting for the Q for ages!

To begin with, yes, they have that rep, certainly on blonde, anyway. It's completely wrong, though. They take monsta bets, as big as any bookie, but they are fussy who they take them from.

First up, try & think from the other side of the Table. Imagine YOU owned the bookie, or YOU were a Shareholder. Looks different from that angle, yes?

I've been punting all my life, until I found poker, when I quit, & like all punters, I thought I understood the business. Wrong. Never have I realised my naivety until I saw the other side of the equation. "Poker" is no different, the high-roller kids - who comprise a whole ONE per cent of the market - all make a hoohah about trivialities, but what exactly do they know about the business side of it, with respect?.

I, & Sky Bet, have been so battered here on blonde, that I just ignore it now. But they don't understand, & that's the truth.....not unless they place themselves in the bookies position, as a Shareholder, owner, or staffer. The two views are simply not compatible. Bookies are like Estate Agents, Bankers, Taxmen, Traffic Wardens, Policeman - nobody likes them. But everyone needs them.....

When blonde & SB&G first hooked up, the first thing I did was go have a meet with Bet. "I have some good punters for you, can you sort some nice priority freebies for them, please?".

"P1", "P2" & "P3" punters get some lovely freebies. We have boxes at every Premiership ground, at every racetrack, etc, & they dish out the freebies to all the "P" ("P" = "Priority") Clients. You know, peeps who punt big.

So I gave them 2 names - Camel, & Flushy. The answer came back pdq - they said, though they said it nicely, "in code", "umm, thanks but no thanks".

I persisted, I'm a stubborn sod when I get something in my head. So they said - again in code - "lookie lookie, why would we want either of them - they are net winners. Why would we want net winners?" (There is a sort of "known" list of winning pro punters).

So when these kind of punters try & get on with Bet, they get severely restricted, so severely that, in effect, they cannot bet there. It's not done on a bet by bet basis, each punter has a "rating", & some ratings are never gonna get on, period. So in fact, it's a back-handed compliment to them.

So, if YOU were a SB&G Shareholder, would YOU take on serial winning punters? I don't think so.....

"Good bookie" or "shit bookie" just depends where you stand. Bet have the biggest win % of all the bookies, because they take great care to attack the right part of the market. Lots - gazillions - of small bets are ideal, lessens the volatility & risk. Big bets? Fine, no problem. But not from net winners.....

Does it work for them? Stakes are up 50% yoy, as they were last year, & the year before, & the year before that.....and margins are the envy of the industry.

So it sort of depends which side of the counter you stand. If you could see the financial performance of SB&G, you'd so want to buy a slice of the action.

The jibes will continue on blonde, & soon enough, the sponsorship will end, I guess. A new Sponsor will come along, God willing. Rinse repeat. Did you ever meet a punter who respected a bookie?

Look how Betfair totally revolutionised punting. When was the last time you heard anyone say a good word about Betfair, or Laddies?

So I ignore the so-called "reputation". The answer lies in the daily figures, the forecasts, the Balance Sheet, the annual results. It goes with the territory, & after the last few years, I've gotten used to being flamed. I manage......

Excellent question, thank you.

[nirvana]

Do you enjoy attracting people to SB & G and then watching them 'do their poke' ?

[tikay]

Do you enjoy attracting people to SB & G and then watching them 'do their poke' ?

I enjoy it in the same perverse way we "enjoy" winning money - we being poker players - from other poker players......

If I win $2k at a cash game, I'm happy, though I don't much like to think about the consequences for the losers. Me, usually.....

The daily figures arrive each morning, at 9am on the dot. If Bet have had a good day, yes, I'm happy, because I'm a stakeholder & shareholder......because I made the conscious decision to be that side of the counter.

[nirvana]

That's logical Captain, but enjoying a win at poker is not analagous with watching mug punters do their poke

[redsimon]

That's logical Captain, but enjoying a win at poker is not analagous with watching mug punters do their poke

Dunno, but if they're adults surely its up to them to do what they want with their cash and to err... gamble responsibly

[tikay]

That's logical Captain, but enjoying a win at poker is not analagous with watching mug punters do their poke

Whyever not, Major?

In truth, it matters not which side of the counter I have been - & I've been both, remember - I've never felt sympathy for any form of gamblers who lose, & that includes me, & I've done plenty!

Anyone who can afford to gamble has nothing in life to complain about, it is a total luxury. "Running bad"? I think not. If we can afford to punt, or play poker, we are in easy street. Without losers, there are no wnners.

If people cannot afford to feed or look after their family, yes, I feel bad for them.

But if they gamble, & cannot afford to feed or look after their family, too bad, nil sympthy, zero, zilch. Nobody is forced to gamble.

[Chompy]

Nirvana can get on with Bet. Just saying.