Matt Williams leaving the Post/Weekender

eclipse , dont let them get to you . i find it hard going through one h/cap a day without going through 100s .so matt hope things go well for you i wasen't always in agreement with you but at least you did your best .take heart and move on to better things in the future all the best mate .

good luck for the future matt, are you going to be full-time on here or something else lined up?

Cheers Ashleigh

Just going to concentrate on the betting, mate, and seeing how that goes. If you see my kipper in the paper or on the box regularly, have sympathy, it means I am skint.......again!

Good luck Matt.  You can enjoy yourself conversing with the "sh1thouses" on here more often. 

eclipse, given the RP refused to print my letters (and everyones elses on the topic) at the time and in general, I tend to treat the paper with suspicion.

All the best to you and hope to hear your thoughts/opinions on here occassionally.

cgull

I rarely come on here and only get involved when I feel the need to defend myself, or put the record straight, sadly.

Going full time betting and one would assume a large portion of that will be In-running. Will you be using fast pictures Matt via racetech or another source ?

matt all the best,always liked your controversial views! the paco bay debate was quality,thought it was going to come to blows!!

Just for the record Matt I thought the comments you made about Jan Faltesjek and Mark Grant were completely gutless. I never understood the reason and hoped it was based on a longer term plan but nothing materialised.
Apart from that I always read your columns and, agree or not, will miss them. Thankx.

good luck Matt - enjoyed your columns - they were well thought out and very readable.

I fear journalists imagine it is easier to take some prices than it actually is for the small-to-middle sized winning punter.

Probably he plays IR so is confident of being able to win w/out knockbacks or excessive aggravation.

I wd rather have a writing gig than have to find increasingly baroque ways of getting the bets on

best of luck matt hope well have a pint again at the galway preview night.

Mat

I stopped gambling when you covered a race up at MUsselbrough and i was on the Evans horse that finished second. The winner went right across the course, took mine with it and stopped its run 3 times. It got beat about half to one length and you said surely the winner will get thrown out. There wasn't even a stewards enquiry and i thought sod it i'm packing in. I know a few other punters emailed after the race and voiced similar actions to myself. Since then can name 3 or 4 winners that have been thrown out for doing far less wrong. At least you had the balls at the time to voice your disapproval of the whole matter.

Good luck mate.

F

Can this place get any lower, slating someone for doing their job.

Good luck Matt you were one of the better contributors and think the paper will miss you, hope the betting goes well.

any fancies for today matt

money tree..........any advice for matt noe he is going full time punter

now*

eclipse Joined: 18 Jun 01
Replies: 26 16 Jun 10 12:20   


Rider, I did more or less say it was a non-story at the time. If I genuinely thought there was something iffy, I would say and I certainly wouldn't be bullied into keeping my mouth shut about anything I believed in. 

So why not give a definitive chapter and verse on here and put the record straight

As rider points out why did your editor refuse to print letters on the subject

I would luv it, just luv it[:)][:)] if you had the courtesy to put the record straight over ATR Extra, Imi and the true story. I have you at 1.01 to carry on being totally evasive.
If it's a "Non Story" why are all of us idiots on here still asking questions

Mr Williams now makes his living using the faster pictures available in an exchange shop - nothing wrong with that, we're all free to frequent such establishments - but it now to his advantage to have as many people as possible using the [much?] slower pictures that ATR provide.

Hth.

''I would luv it, just luv it, if you had the courtesy to put the record straight over ATR Extra, Imi and the true story. I have you at 1.01 to carry on being totally evasive.
If it's a "Non Story" why are all of us idiots on here still asking question''

And you were being courteous when you called him a coward, 100% yellow and a sad, patronising excuse for a mickey mouser, where you?!

indeed. He's back in the warren.

My advice is

FOLLOW THE TREE.

good luck matt

duncan - Sad but true innit. It's taken him 3 years to let onto us that it is a "non-story".FFS[>o]

Havent bought a Weekender since Delemere left.

Possibly the most intelligent and insightful stuff I ever read.

try Gore Vidal.

people only leave when there is an alternative, a la rafael benitez/graham cunningham/matt williams and other 'greats!' to numerous to mention; where will MW pop up next?

Exchange shop.

Matt seems to be following the exact same path of his hero Graham WellDone

RP - Weekender - Pro Punter - Poker - Pies


freaky similarity, be saying next he dont like women....

guidofawkes, you're an ****

arse

hole

Good lad is Matt, always worth reading his thoughts.

Wish him well with future projects and would like to confirm that he will never be as good as me at de pokerz, nor will he ever consume as many pies.

Re: the slow pic jobbie, my pics are so far behind I've just been watching ybor city analyse a race. FML.

Good riddance, I much prefer the more erudite Nick Mordin to the common scouser

Same.

Good luck Matt, hope all works out well for you pal. Larrald

I have no idea whether or not Matt Williams was a good or a bad tipster. Never interested me at all. On the telly he sounded like a proper punter who loves the game as we all do

The thing that irks me is the whole ATR Extra fiasco. It's something that concerns the majority of us on here. Matt because of his position as the in running tarde paper specialist was in a pivotal position. Initially he was superb and straight on the case and taking no prisoners Then what happened He was after Imi with a vengeance and then he bottled it big time. Now if he had come on here and said they've warned me off (sorry Harry) we would all have thought OK fair doos he's got a mortgage to pay, blah, blah, blah.

But no what does he do after he gets the old heave ho, comes on here and says it was a "non story". That is totally insulting to everyone who has ever been concerned with the whole "ATR Extra" scandal AND it totally contradicts his initial take on the story. I am ashamed at how some of my fellow forumites have joined in with this total cowardice. Your even more cowardly than Matt in fact you make him look like Tery Butcher in a bandage[>o]

guido........hes a rotten tipster

but  seems a nice enough bloke

You know he could come on here and tell us the whole story instead of taking us for grade A cnuts[>o]

but if his punting goes t.its up which reading his column is a likely scenario he"d liked to work for atr again

What a lot of spiteful posts.
The people who posted them should be ashamed of themselves.
I echo Workrider's sentiments and wish you well, Matt.

mfordy will be devastated

Are you telling me that he couldn't let the truth come out without his fingerprints allover it. get real madrid mate[;)]

matt (eclipse), in your opinion are we any closer to getting faster pictures on out tv's n the next 12 mths?

do you feel the picture delay on ruk and atr is fair?? justified??

Northern pro. get over to http://www.betfairbanter.com and sihn up NOW[;)]

Best tipster in the Weekender is Richy Hunter.

respect your decision if you don;t reply on here, all the best for the future

Anyone any idea who will replace Matt on Pricewise Xtra?? After a red hot start they have cooled off significantly and will now have had 2 recent changes in personnel with Mel Collier leaving and now Matt.

As said earlier, a gutless yellow streak runs right through him, just like every Harry Faversham four White feather brigade who works for that rag, not a backbone between them, gutless jellyfish

The ATR xtra story wasn't released because his paymasters didn't want the story

Unless he is the horse racing journalist equivalent of Serpico, e.g. a man prepared to sacrifice his livelihood in the pursuit of the truth, why should he do it?

He's not a f00king martyr looking for a Sainthood as far as I'm aware.

Well Ok. Just let him say that and not stuff like it's a "non story". He's insulted a lot of people's intelligence with saying that.

hopefully there get rid of the trading post comic pages for good,biggest load of cac ever,clueless.

Some absolutely pathetic comments on here against a lad who has done his best to point people in the direction of profit,
Always remember you lot criticising its quite simple YOU DIDNT HAVE TO READ HIS COLUMN,good luck Matt and all the best for the future.

Matt , you are leaving to concentrate on your punting, as you find it a tad stressful to cope with a job and punting full time, well just think how stressful it is going to be when your betting is paying the bills  week in week out.
Good luck to you, its a tough job.

Push, 'difficult' doesn't equal stressful....you just cant do 2 jobs at once...simples.

"stressful" is the word Matt used in the Weekender when explaining his reasons for leaving. Besides i think backing winners for a living is stressful .

I believe he's done it before. Apologies, i've only seen his piece in y'days RPost.

always struck me as a nice guy so i hope it  works for him

Some shocking, spiteful threads.

If he thinks he can make it pay, good luck to him.
Makes no difference to me, cannot see why it provokes such bitterness in some people.

the problem with the RP and the guys writing the Trading Post piece was that they if memory serves said they were going to investigate why ATR suddenly dropped the extra service which was ahead of SIS.
As speed is probably the magor determinent of success/failure IR I dont think it was unreasonable for a "journalist" to enquire into why it suddenly disappeared-even if it was just a paragraph within 1 days article.
Unfortunately for those concerned (ie everyone who plays IR ) this never happened.

Leaving aside the vitriol earlier in this thread, scoopytoo has hit the nail on the head.

I have to say that Matt's explanation that what he and others called the most important story to have emerged from inrunning suddenly becoming a non story is (whether Matt realises or not) an extremely insulting reply to his former readers.

This can only fuel the fire the conspiracy theorists so desire.

Anytime Ive seen Matt Williams he has seemed a good guy, loves his racing and I liked reading his analysis.

There has been some vitriol on this thread - but it is 100% true that he said at one time he was going to follow up ATR pics story - and he never did nor did the RP ever offer an explanation on why. Only his "non-story" line earlier in this thread has been any sort of follow-up.

Obviously, I stand to be corrected, but ...

To the best of my knowledge - Matt Williams never was a tipster, nor had pretensions to be.
I was told that he worked on page make-up/production at the Racing Post, and made a lump by betting 'in-running', in the earlier days, by utilising the 'in-house' fast pictures feed in the office - and to some effect.
He migrated to tipping under something of a misnomer (who wouldn't, if somebody thought that you were something that you really weren't) - and gave it a go. It now looks like the pressure has hit home, and he has decided that tipping is not for him - and he will (presumably) be returning to playing 'in-running' betting - as I cannot see him making the game pay as a Form analyst, given that he has already 'played his cards' in that arena - and has drawn stumps.

Incidentally - The other Matt (Doyle) who used to be on ATR and is now bookie's PR for Skybet - also started out on page make-up on the Racing Post.
Looks like if you want a job as a tipster - you have to do a few years on page make-up/production, first.

That, however, is far from being my idea of a natural transition.

He won bundles and now finds work getting in the way of winning bundles. What would you do?

So if he was a beneficiary of fast pics why on earth did he want to rock the boat

Can you imagine a proper journalist such as Lydia Hislop letting Mathew Imi get away with being ina 3 year meeting[:x]

Quark Express paste up boy investigates ATR Extra

read all abaht itttt

Mr Williams did a piece in the RP at the turn of the year explaining that after initially having great success on BF, he had struggled to make the game pay in recent times.

In an attempt to stop the rot, he decided to take the plunge and utilise the faster pictures in an exchange shop.
I can only presume that as he is now in a position to quit his job, he has made bundles from having access to these faster pictures.

Mr Williams has led the way here: if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

Good luck, Matt.

will he go the same route as Yifter radio, subscription web site and RUK( free adverts). Then again there's only so much gravy in a gravy boat. Will there be a bunfight for the RUK Northern gigs - Chester, Haydock, Carlisle? It'll be like watching window cleaners or Ice Cream Vans having a turf war bunfight.

I dont know what the fuss is about. The guy is in a position to decide if he wants to bet full time and he's taken that route. I dont know the bloke and wont patronise him with heaps of well wishing, just let him get on with it same as every one else gets on with their business, what a waste of discussion about nothing.

he won 27k when he backed that horse who the commentator called a faller

Onlooker
I am more than capable of making money pre-race and have done well in that area of late. Writing daily tipping copy is a difficult task, some days you struggle to fancy anything, and if you genuinely expect day-before tipping copy to make a consistent profit over the years, then try giving it a go yourself and see how you do. Generally, your response in this thread is well wide of the mark. Who are you anyway? You assume to know a lot about my career at the Post, but some of your 'facts' are wrong.
As for the ATR debate, the facts are quite simple, and I am sure I have mentioned this in the past, but will do so again just to help matters.
ATR get their channels from Sky and it is Sky who allocate the channels. There is nothing ATR can do about the speed of pictures. It was perhaps reasonable for conspiracy theorists to believe ATR were deliberately slowing the coverage to stop punters being able to use Betfair, when Betfair were not contributing to ATR. Now, though, they are their biggest sponsor and still the pics are the same.
If this is the case, then it is not unreasonable to call it a non-story, although I appreciate I probably shouldn't have used that description.

Matt - I have done 17 hours a day, usually till 3 am following an hours' breather at last orders, 7 days a week, 361 days a year (excepting the 3 blank days at Christmas and Good friday) for many, many years - so I am more than aware of the degree of difficulty.

I still haven't lost any of my interest or controlled enthusiasm, either.

The only way to do this game IS in advance - otherwise you will miss things - which then releases you to current check the form of the results as they happen, and not after racing - which is equally important.

As for the ATR debate, the facts are quite simple, and I am sure I have mentioned this in the past, but will do so again just to help matters.
ATR get their channels from Sky and it is Sky who allocate the channels. There is nothing ATR can do about the speed of pictures.

And your source at ATR would be......as it obviously aint Imi. Private briefing by their PR Dept was it

eclipse Joined: 18 Jun 01
Replies: 27 17 Jun 10 13:31 

As for the ATR debate, the facts are quite simple, and I am sure I have mentioned this in the past, but will do so again just to help matters.
ATR get their channels from Sky and it is Sky who allocate the channels. There is nothing ATR can do about the speed of pictures. It was perhaps reasonable for conspiracy theorists to believe ATR were deliberately slowing the coverage to stop punters being able to use Betfair, when Betfair were not contributing to ATR. Now, though, they are their biggest sponsor and still the pics are the same.
If this is the case, then it is not unreasonable to call it a non-story, although I appreciate I probably shouldn't have used that description.


Matt,

this response is confusing, becaquse ATR fast pics seemed to be on the same channel as ATR itself, but were 'behind the red button'.

My technical knowledge is non existant, but if they are on the same channel then why is one feed faster than the other?

I am afraid that Matt can't answer that simple question as he is in a meeting with Mathew Imi at the moment, can you call back in 2,013 please

all those knocking matt are jealous that they cant get a job writing for the racing post [;)]

hello matt, i would just like to ask this, SKY gives ATR the pictures, so who gave ATR EXTRA the pictures.
cheers

rcing

I assume SKY provide the platform, but I am only passing on what I have been told and can do no more than that.
Cheers

The truth ?

You can't handle the truth [smiley:crazy]

I didnt realise BF are the biggest sponsor of ATR, that would explain alot and why the presenters suddenly went from not mentioning in-running betting to mentioning after every race, seems slightly irresponsible to encourage IR betting when the viewer is at such a disadvantage.

but I am only passing on what I have been told and can do no more than that




Ah, good old journalism at its best.

SKY give ATR the pictures
SKY gave ATR EXTRA the pictures
it has been shown to be possible to broadcast faster pictures on ATR, as it was once faster on ATR EXTRA.
why did it stop?
why dont ATR use whatever feed they were using for ATR EXTRA .
i think scoobytoo makes a valid point at 09.28
cheers for reply matt

a non story? either eclipse is naive or he doesn't want to rock the boat for whatever reasons..

Lets face it, if he is getting a good income from fast pics, he would be crazy to rock the boat, wouldn't he?  I very much doubt that anyone in his position on here would do anything about the speed of atr when it is providing most of their income.

Give him credit where it is due. Matt was on the case with ATR Extra very quickly. In fact I would think a lot of people were quite amazed at someone on the RP behaving like a proper journalist and acting in the interests of its readership.

Then what happened? Years later he still trying to whitewash it away It's almost as if there are two Matt Williams, a good bloke and a total coward

i completely agree with everything guidofawkes has posted and i am sure there are many more that do as well

Everyone in Rampton agrees with guido.

A lot of the reason why there has been no media interest in covering the picture speed issue imo, is that the media are one of the major groups exploiting the fast pictures - either in the Press Room at the racecourse (one of the few places on track with a fast internet link) or in the Racing Post offices.

As for Matt Williams, well at least he's a punter, and unlike most of the media fence sitters, you could never say he didn't have an opinion...

According to Tipsterform Tom Segal is now on a run of 27 consecutive losers on Pricewise Extra. Maybe he will be next to go?

LEEVAN, your first reply in 8 years?
Crikey.

I never actually read this message board and didn't even know I was a member until I tried to make a post.... lol. I only found it again after searching for Matt Williams.

Leevan means drinking glass in one language [smiley:crazy]

LEEVAN     21 Jun 10 10:49 
...... I only found it again after searching for Matt Williams.
-----------------
LEEVAN - Could you explain - in as much detail as possible - just HOW you dod your 'SEARCH' for Matt Williams.

foxy top, myself, and others, would be very interested - as the old SEARCH facilities from the former forum, no longer work.

Serious question - Thank you.

Refer to Look onlooker threat, ta.

No problem Onlooker. There's this thing called Google...

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=%22matt williams%22 leaves racingpost&btnG=Search&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=

Its fantastic. You should try it.

he dont like change....

Seriously...how hard can it be to have to write x words per week on current matters, mix in previewing a couple of the better races, and the shorties, oh and sort out your punting low and high for the week.

He had everything at his fingertips at the RP, and unless he's solely going back to In Running, he could find things more taxing.

Still...he was the best of a very bad bunch.

I have goldfish more intelligent when it comes to tipping than Mr Pyman and his back "next 6 starts in Class 5 or worse" approach.

He must have multiple gg accounts for the Nag Me!

1072 to the power of 72 was his last count on his horse to follow list.

Did he have a good record tipping in the paper? His pricewise extra tips were just about ok.

Seen worse.