Give the odds?

how many still 9/2 when it goes 5.4 here ?

Adge im north too, ill look out for it, its refreshing to hear.

Catterick, Newcastle, Hexham, Carlisle and Sedgefield prices are all generally rancid imo with Ripon, Thirsk, York and Beverley being a lot better.

adge, may I reply to your direct post to me yesterday please ?

Totally agree with you regarding attendances at midweek fixtures in France and also the US and Australia. However, HK is totally mobbed every Wednesday at HV, but 2 meetings a week I guess is the reason there.   

My point is that on-course bookmaking is a clearly slowly dying profession in the UK, in my opinion.

I used to love the ring, I worked in the ring for a number of years in the days of tic-tac and chalk boards, and if I was not working I would go to tracks as often as possible punting, great day out.

I have no desire for anybody of any industry to have to face the fact they may lose their jobs, but could we argue that sending our children up chimneys to sweep them clean, should be still be being practiced ?  Of course not, we have all moved on.

The exchanges killed the betting ring and it is now just a matter of time for on-course bookmakers.

Regretfully but not surprisingly, it is my view that when we start back tomorrow I have no doubt that on-course books will not be missed.

Sorry and nothing personal, but that's how I see it.

He is still a Beverley sparrow - part of the fixtures !!

white hat jon ...agreed things have changed on racecourses and for me not for the better but we all adapt
for example of modern pitch values though......two years ago i had the chance of buying number 3 pitch in tatts at doncaster [flat ]
i offered 85k but the seller insisted that he wanted 100k so the sale didn't happen
less than a year ago he put the pitch up for sale in an auction with a reserve of 100k and he sold it at a final price of 135k.
if on course bookmaking is finished someone has clearly come unstuck there

agreed on course books will not be missed at these early days as only 5 turned up for the 50 to 80 customers at these all weather gaffs
newmarket at the weekend and ascot next week a much different situation

Meh surely pitch location is now even more important than it previously was?

Customer profile = surely people that are unaware what or where the best price is and people that want a quick and easy process that in Doncasters case have just come out of the huge beer hall inside?

Democrat,you could buy a street in Doncaster for 100k,never mind a property.

You should have a word with Dave Nevison,he loved Donny so much he introduced social distancing long before Covid,particularly when it applied to the female population.He was right when he told me that the African plains were as near as he could think of as a descriptive region to avoid at all costs.Went as far as to say Sir David Attenborough's "Sweeping across the plain in majestic herds" could not do justice to the Wildebeest population.

just started reading ,,didnt get that far down so im sure its been picked up on...but a lot of tracks block betfair ,,york for 1,,

blue, don't think they  do no doubt someone with more trips to York than me will let us know. Used to go a lot 5 years ago, very seldom go to Doncaster these days and thats on my door step.

One of the interesting aspects of the resumption at Newcastle was the sight of bookmakers behaving themselves. Well, “sight” is wrong because all the betting action occurred online but the evidence is there for all to see in the results section of Tuesday morning’s Racing Post, which shows the profit margin built into bookies’ prices on day one was kept within very respectable limits.

This matters because starting prices cannot be determined by on-course trade, the familiar, tested and mostly trusted system that has been in place for eons. The public can’t get into racecourses just now, so racecourse bookmakers are sidelined.

For the time being SPs are being contrived from the odds offered by various firms online according to some unpublished formula overseen by the Press Association. It’s a new system lacking transparency and any punter would have to be wary, which is why it’s reassuring to see over-rounds between 113% and 119% for the mostly 12-runner races at Newcastle.

So there you go betting to 1% a ruuner in h/caps to 1.5% for non h/caps seem vey fair to me.

I will start by saying I have no complaints at all with yesterdays proceedings, the % on the high side but more than fair.

Just an idea everyone..do you like it?

Nobody seemed to like my 115% course owned tote system.

What about course owned bookmakers? All profits kept internally by the racecourses.

They know how many tickets are sold and can set up the amount of bookmaking stands accordingly.

They run 100 identical boards set to different % depending on what enclosure you are in....

So take York, the members can have a board set to 110% and the picnic end can have a board set to 115% and so on.

Prices are available for different amounts depending on the enclosure so £50 max bet picnic end at a time, £250 members etc.

All boards run by staff on min wage or nearly min wage (its not a specialist role these days)

And a revolutionary move away from CASH...

You go in and load up your funds to a cashless card or it can be done earlier from home etc

With your cashless card you can buy drinks/merch or bet with it.

At the end of the day anything left on the card can be refunded to a debit card or collected at a booth.

Guys "liking the feel of cash in your hand" is not a good reason to be ripped off...come on now.

Times move on.

I was thinking more of 1 man operated because it is cashless?

Bookmaker stands with tablet, punter calls out stake and number, fed through into a central pool, you don't actually need to return to collect, its cashless?

20 on 4 .....

Tablet holder presses number 4, stake 20 pounds.

Tablet linked to ticket printer...cashless card linked to app on phone...

As for handling losses the course haven't hugely thought it through but as liabilities would be controlled centrally someone paid more would be able to work with a 115% book?

Its better than what we have at the moment anyway in places North I listed.

Places that are part of a group, i.e. ARC tracks can work to a central pot so the odd loss wouldn't be harmful and anyway, they could do what 90% of your colleagues do, have it back on here if they liked?

so lets look at the 115% figure that you suggest
one example...a horse is heavily backed at 8/1 so is reduced to 6/1..to balance the percentage another horse is extended from 6/1 out to 8/1....that's a 3% loss on the original 115%
again.....the 2/1 fav is heavily backed and shortens to 6/4..meaning that the 2nd fav goes out from 7/2 to 9/2 and a 5/1 chance goes to 6/1....that's a 7%loss.....
yes it can work but needs a good degree of skill
at present the racecourse get approx £100 per day plus staff admission from a cheap ring bookmaker and £200 plus staff admission  for a saturday meeting.[ some days are more , some less ]
so with tatts and rails being 80 or more books and the cheap being 30 or more books the racecourse income without doing anything are £20,000 on each day .

that is quite a considerable sum to turn away

Crumbs adge making such plans would mean that you would arrive at the track in good time. Most unlike you !!

Yes good idea jinxy back to the old days when it was all straight.

You best pack it in then, lucky.

The last week has taught us all the ring is finished and not required.
This thread had showed us the only people who want oncourse books are those who operate them and indeed opposed to change and improvement, hence in essence causing and indeed helping the end of what was in the past, a colourful skillful trade of oncourse bookmaking die.