Are bookmakers getting brave again?

Will Hayler http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog

William Hill is increasingly offering stand-out odds on racing's big-betting events

There is nothing as infuriating for punters as seeing an advertised price which they cannot have a chunk of, because their account has been restricted or closed down.

Bookmakers understandably do not like to talk too much about the number of their customers – or former customers - who cannot get the bets they want on, or have to go to considerable lengths to do so. But credit where it is due to William Hill, whose trading director, Terry Pattinson, is trying to steer the firm back towards the old-fashioned art of laying of bet.

Formerly employed as a consultant to the betting industry in the Far East, the Australian Pattinson joined Hill's two and a half years ago and, since being promoted to his present position at the start of last year, has encouraged his masters to be brave and take a view on the big races.

This led to the firm making several stand-out offers on prices this year, most notably at the Cheltenham Festival and more recently when Hill's were top-priced about all three market-leaders in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. It is to be hoped that the spectacular gains they must have made on that race – "undoubtedly the racing result of the year" according to Pattinson – will encourage similarly brave moves.

Punters who have proved consistently one step ahead still cannot expect to be accommodated but Pattinson is at least making an effort to move the goalposts.

"I understand how it feels to be knocked back; I wouldn't get £20 on with most of the other firms," he said. "But there has to be a bit of give and take. The UK industry is the worst at not giving punters a fair go. It's totally different from Asia where I have come from and it's something I'm trying to sort out.

"I don't care for the real professional, who knows more about the little races than we do, and every horse they back goes off at half the odds they are taking. But the everyday punter should be able to get 50 quid, 100 quid on the big races without difficulty. On the big events I want all of our customers to be able to have a good bet."

It is not hard to see the flaws in Pattinson's punter-friendly pledge. Although he says he is looking at ways to "revisit" the methods and coding used to distinguish between different types of punter, it will be too late for those who have had accounts closed for the crime of daring to find a big-priced winner or three.

Furthermore, if it was not for the decision of Hill's to relocate their web and telephone businesses offshore and starve the sport of much needed Levy payments, there would not be sufficient margin in the racing business to be able to make such punter-friendly offers.

But for many punters, £50 is a big bet, a very big bet, and Pattinson's promise to let those customers get a market-beating price on popular horses in big races (in the World Hurdle in March they offered betting shop backers up to £100 on Grands Crus at 4-1 and 9-2 when he was trading some way under those odds on Betfair) deserves recognition and some appreciation.

On the subject of giving punters better value, Fred Done's decision to guarantee the Jackpot at £100,000 also deserves a mention as a step in the right direction. It is a gamble, of course, because, if less than that amount is bet into the pool, even with the take-out of 29%, Fred could end up paying out more to winners than he has attracted in bets.

But the initial response to the guarantee has been positive, with much improved pools produced, and the fact that a record amount of £2.9m was bet into the Jackpot at Newmarket last month is a demonstration that even as racing struggles against the lure of other sports, punters are prepared to invest when they consider they are getting value for their money