Betting ring a waste of time..

Speaking to a few old mates who meet up on Gold Cup day and that was one of the many reasons for not going anymore.
Crowds, view, maybe cost but for me it is the ring action, or lack of.
Same with Aintree, remember walking around Tatts on Red Maurader day, could barely get 25s.(fluked it and returned 33s so you have to imagine there was some 40s around).
Joined the long queue at Tote and only went one more time.
Same reasons ironically.

Agreed. Running up and down the boards getting 10s about a general 8s shot used to be an integral part of the day. I havent had a bet in the ring for a few years now. Its all betfair on the phone, or tote in the big field races these days.

I didn't think the jungle was too bad but that's probably just in comparison with the nobheads with computers down by the chute. They are a waste of space.

Betting also a joke, they just shorten the front few in the betting every race, gets worse for the last two on each day.....it's becoming a bit of a joke.

They do exactly the same with the National too :(

I was wandering around cheltenham and there was some dreadful book % going around. I saw one bookmaker who had the first four in the GC 5/2, 7/2 7/2 7/2 and then had the cheek to have cape tribulation at 8s. And they wonder why people come on here to bet. Bloody dreadfull stuff

That is shocking Angel.

by far most heinous ring crime I saw committed was on the Tuesday

Geoff Banks shouts his mouth off on Twitter but had 50/1 the pair Ostentatious and Fire King in the first. Everywhere else 500s

I asked if it was a typo and the answer came back "no"

I left my phone at the hotel so couldn't take a picture but wish I hadn't now!

the only thing the ring is good for is feeling smug.

betting is done in the morning.

Any bookmaker who buys a pitch in the Centaur knows that they can offer much higher over rounds.

The 6 or 8 of them have got a captive audience many of whom are not price sensitive and of course can't see what prices are available outside as a guide.

I would guess that the average over round per runner for those few boards is way in excess of the 200+ outside.

Who would have thought years ago that bookmakers would choose to bet inside at the festival as opposed to being in the main betting ring? In fact I reckon that many of the pitches in "secondary" areas at the festival do well as more and more people appear to be there for the drink rather than the racing. The ones out the back just above the parade ring also look ridiculously busy and must do better than the vast majority of Tatts pitches.

you are pretty much there BB,Mr banks will have put them in at 50 to get his % up (who would realistically back them at any price?) as there will have been a deal to bet to a certain % amongst the 6 books enabling him to go better prices some of the others.its a very hard game for the books and if you have a captive audience who can blame them? Personally though i think cheltenham is a place to take money  and these "deals" can hinder as much as help.

Yes the bookmaker I was looking at was Geoff Banks in the Centuar to. This is why I find it laughable they say the game is dead. They have been the main architects in this. I would love to have a pitch at the Centuar, its a license to print money. I was thinking the books i saw for the GC were around 150% + and this is a conservative estimate.

Truly shocking prices in the centaur with Banks leading the way (although I didnt see him there on Thursday?). 

The captive audience argument is poor as they are only 100 yards from the tatts bookies and there is also a Ladbrokes inside with SP betting and a host of money back and extra place specials). 

Just taking advantage on non-price savvy punters.. sad to see.

I expect they would also sell Tesco Beans to blind men saying they are Heinz.

@swardean, yes interesting that the ladbrokes is there and they looked to be betting about 115% on the GC with tight prices around the front four. Be a muppet not to bet with them in the Centuar but there are always some that will still be wondering if 11/4 is bigger than 3/1

one might ask the question if your inside watching on a screen and betting with ladbrookes,wtf are you paying 60 quid for a tkt,

might have had been something to do with it being the only covered area at that point where you could walk 5 yards in under 20 minutes. The rain would have been music to their ears in there, the weather was particularly appaling friday.

If the mobile connection issues ever get sorted then the bookies have no where left to go.

10 years ago I had a bet in every race with the bookies. This year I had 2 bets. Must be thousands more like me.

Why don't a few try something different to drum up some business?

Favourite NOT to win?

Place only betting?

Maybe they are happy standing all day outside the exit chute from the Guinness Village offering 9/4 on 3/1 shots?...or 1/5 the odds 123 in the Coral Cup?.. must be soul destroying knowing your business is based solely on ripping people off.

It's about time racecourses forced bookies to offer proper each way terms as a condition of them standing.

thats why you never hear the bookies complaining about the hooley element, there their only custom

Flemenstar - You do spout some outrageous nonsense. How would you know at any moment if a horse was 50/1 in one place and 500/1 in a ring 100 yards away and which would take a couple of minutes to get to? And what were the place terms on offer? Where they 1/4 or 1/6th And one supposes you work for nothing?
As for the other posts about margins, I would say this. I operate a business for profit. Not to turn it over on an exchange for penny profits in the greatest betting heat of the meeting. Don't like it? Simply bet elsewhere
The betting ring is dead on it's feet, stop bleating on about how you expect everyone to bet like morons

Think Stephenson is an embarassment with her views from the betting ring. She's had close affiliation with bookies in the past
and it comes across on screen. She refuses to call it as it is (on course punters virtually always getting poor value).
Someone in her position should be advising punters to back with BF or take morning prices from the Bookies which would result
in them getting better value 95% plus of the time. The on course bookies serve no purpose any more and the space they take up
would be better used for other things. Time for racecourses to move on and remove something that now serves no purpose.

Just taking advantage on non-price savvy punters.. sad to see.

No it's not! anyone who pays 60 quid for a ticket and then can't be assed to understand the rather simple mathematics of betting deserves to be taken advantage of - it's the racecourse equivalent of FOBTs.

The whole trend is towards dumbing down of everyday life - the lowest common denominator always wins out in the end.

On the exchanges a larger percentage of users actually understand racing, betting etc and not are not just out for a day on the lash with a few bets thrown in.

Personally haven't gone to Festival since it went to 4 days - although some of the additional races have actually turned out to be good moves e.g. jewson, fred winter, it was already pretty hard physically/mentally for three days and for me four would be unbearable.

I only did a few AP bets this year and although two of them won, I had taken 16s Holywell  and 7/2 The New One so my approach for next year will be wait till NRNB and even then hold back for day of race odds on the exchanges

Starts by berating those who don't understand the simple mathematics of betting and ends by saying he took 7/2 ante-post on The New One. That's funny.

I go to Neville Porter by the chute at around midday, I reel off a list of horses I want to back and he gives me prices which are usually better than current odds available.

I hold the view that it's excahnges that have created the problem.
I see both sides but having looked quite seriously at becoming an on course bookie a few years ago I realised (and was given some sound advice) that millions are traded on every race on exchanges and pennies change hands on course, for that bookies have to pay fortunes to enter racecourses and their overheads are in the region of £600 a day, about £1k for a meeting like Cheltenham, that makes it virtually impossible to make money so they don't bother showing up and the industry is dying as a result.

As a punter I occasionally back horses on exchanges when the prices are heavily in my favour, I never lay a horse because I'm not that type of punter, but for the damage exchanges cause to UK racing they don't put anywhere near enough money back into the sport for me.
The SP system is under serious threat and requires a major review, the way the sport operates at the moment is unsustainable. 

I get as fed up as everyone when rows of boards show the same price but it's going that way for a reason....