Britain at the Bookies

[Chompy]

But, hold on, I wanted £50 on this fella to be MOTM at 18-1. What do you mean I can only have £27.22? I have DIY plans ffs.

Biggest farce was the Coral Novelty odds compiler pretending he does it full time and takes thousands on Strictly.

When, in reality, they go up first with Big Brother eviction markets every week (guesses obv) and pull the market after someone has a tenner on.

Get Louis Theroux in there, not someone who's happy to let Simon Clare prance around talking utter roffles. That was like an hour-long advert for Coral.

[Omm]

So your daughter is sitting there telling you she would rather not go to a shop and work where she has been threatened, abused and had chairs thrown at her. You ignore that, smile and ask her if she wants to go. Proper company man that.

[The_nun]

So your daughter is sitting there telling you she would rather not go to a shop and work where she has been threatened, abused and had chairs thrown at her. You ignore that, smile and ask her if she wants to go. Proper company man that.

Lol.

[Chompy]

So your daughter is sitting there telling you she would rather not go to a shop and work where she has been threatened, abused and had chairs thrown at her. You ignore that, smile and ask her if she wants to go. Proper company man that.

No surprise at all.

I joined Coral from school, first at Head Office, then as a shop manager. After a six-week settling course, they sent two of us, me and an Irish guy who lived out Cambridge way, to a shop in Luton that had been shut for about a month after two robberies in the space of a week.

Amazing scenes looking back.

[celtic]

So your daughter is sitting there telling you she would rather not go to a shop and work where she has been threatened, abused and had chairs thrown at her. You ignore that, smile and ask her if she wants to go. Proper company man that.

Rightly so.

[The Camel]

Actually wasn't nearly as bad as I expected.

Winners get banned.

They don't even try to stop addicts pissing their money away in FOBTs.

They are the two main messages from the programme.

[Jamier-Host]

I thought it was less hammy than expected too. Didn't shy away from the unemployed simpleton doing his case money, or a few moments of abuse/violence aimed at staff.

My first job out of school was at Coral to save up for Uni, and continued it throughout until it was more profitable to sit at home playing poker. I even did one of the last ever residential settling courses. The FOBTs were only just coming in as I was phasing out so it's a different world these days i'm sure. However the part i'm sure won't come up is the pressure on staff to work long hours and cover solo in some shops, despite the risks. You could end up doing silly hours in my time when only night racing kept the shops open, but now most of them are open 12/13 hours a day it must be awful. I guarantee people are being effectively forced to do opening to closing or working long stretches without a day off.

Oh, and can't help quoting this from earlier. We could have bought ourselves a new bathroom if we'd got on

100-1 they show anyone having a bet knocked back.

[McGlashan]

It's nice to see Tony's professional courtesy when it comes to wiping down FOBT's and keeping his shop clean. Seeing messy piles of coupons or expired coupons on shop counters really tilts me.

[Ironside]

I thought program wasn't too bad
Love how the did say we don't want regular winning punters
And how they showed accounts being closed for winning a table

[Tal]

Is it true the Strictly odds compiler admitted he didn't know what he was doing?

I hope he hasn't lost too much confidence for this year. Be a shame, otherwise, as we had some fun on TfT last year.

Click to see full-size image.

Click to see full-size image.

[scotty2hatty]

Should have came to my shop rather than t'one in Hudds. Some guy shit himself in the toilets the other day and came out with his half white/half brown y-fronts in his hand. Now that would have been TV!

[Matt.NFFC.]

Enjoyed it to be fair.

Was surprised they showed people not being able to get on.

I deffo would put a bet on with those 2 lovely ladies serving.  I get to put up with 2 blokes in their 40's at my local.  Life ain't fair!

Was glad that lad didn't spunk his shoe money....half expected him to bail on the shoes and turn round straight into Paddy Power.

Would have been good to see a proper pro set up at home, doing their magic on Betfair though.

[arbboy]

Enjoyed it to be fair.

Was surprised they showed people not being able to get on.

I deffo would put a bet on with those 2 lovely ladies serving.  I get to put up with 2 blokes in their 40's at my local.  Life ain't fair!

Was glad that lad didn't spunk his shoe money....half expected him to bail on the shoes and turn round straight into Paddy Power.

Would have been good to see a proper pro set up at home, doing their magic on Betfair though.

Don't think there will be much mention of betfair on an effectively coral sponsored show.  Surprised the bbc are effectively giving them a free advert on the bbc for 3 weeks.  Obviously the account closing email the 'winner' got wasn't a coral account but VC.

You can come round and watch me watching loose women and countdown any afternoon you want on betfair.  You will be bored shitless after an hour and go home i reckon.  Nothing exciting about it!

Shame the shrewdie didn't show us the bets he had to win his kitchen and bathroom.  Good show overall though better than i thought it would be.  Pretty realistic and hard hitting in places, esp the abuse shop staff take.  I wasn't expecting it to be that honest tbh.

Love how results orientated the betting shop manager was regarding profits in one shop and the other shop losing.  Both could easily be long term winning shops ev wise.  The guy just summed up a typical clueless betting shop manager when it comes to making long term profits.  Have a couple of winning bets and you get sent on your way types.

[The_nun]

Should have came to my shop rather than t'one in Hudds. Some guy shit himself in the toilets the other day and came out with his half white/half brown y-fronts in his hand. Now that would have been TV!

Wonder if it's the same one that does it in Hudds?

[The_nun]

Enjoyed it to be fair.

Was surprised they showed people not being able to get on.

I deffo would put a bet on with those 2 lovely ladies serving.  I get to put up with 2 blokes in their 40's at my local.  Life ain't fair!

Was glad that lad didn't spunk his shoe money....half expected him to bail on the shoes and turn round straight into Paddy Power.

Would have been good to see a proper pro set up at home, doing their magic on Betfair though.

Only one of them remain they had to part company and no not for anything relating to money.