Terry Ramsden interview on StarSports

Yeah we've already had a star sports Ramsden thread. Most not keen on him and I have to say he doesn't go into the downsides much...if at all.

I’d rather be in my head than his. Jesus Christ he talks some garble.

I really enjoy those star sports videos have done for years and watch them all but fcuk me couldn’t make it to the third instalment. Absolute ass clown.

Video of him on YouTube 20 years ago spouting  same absolute madness

He comes across as a really humble guy.....

I quite enjoyed the first episode, clearly not a self effacing character and still loves revelling in the good times. I have read some stuff about him before and quite harrowing how Ladcrookes let him run massive credit debts and eventually took him to the cleaners. Amazing how he was intelligent enough to find a niche to make millions from warrants and then stupid enough to lose millions race track gambling.

Not a good guy though as going to jail for fraud...

obviously agreed to an interview if only talked about the good times

ashforth described himself as an awful gambler in the other documentary with ladbrokes profit ledger heavily influenced, obviously why sirrel let him bet

I suppose there are loads of businessmen that have spotted a niche and quickly cashed in on it. Betting on racing defeats about 99%.

It's a bit like some of the Harry Findlay interviews in that it is not really an interview so much as a well-rehearsed series of time-polished anecdotes. It was interesting enough as a one-man show and some good nostalgia but there was no *usable* information there like there is in some of the other Starsports interviews.

*except maybe to never play cards with JP McManus.

He ought to go see JP and see if he can have that £20k back

I started to watch it thinking it would be of interest but in the opening gambit he was quick to mention his I.Q. of 195. I then thought, nah, this isn't really for me.

In my book, self praise is no praise.

Yep. The guy is a pillock

I found the interviews all quite sad. Just a rehash of what we already knew. When I was in my 20's during the 1980's it was all great stuff but now, at 61, I find it rather boring and the fact he let so much money slip through his hands was quite stupid. 

But, to be fair, Ramsden, to the best of my knowledge, did not go to jail in the past for fraud.

At the original bankrupcy hearings, it became clear that the failure of Glen International (his company) was partly due to the major banks pulling his lines of credit when the world stock-markets took a plunge. The presiding judge even commented upon that and expressed displeasure at how the banks behaved.

He did his time for not disclosing all of his assets at his bankrupcy hearings. It isn't a million miles away from fraud but not as bad.

I tell you what, though, if I had been a Ladbrokes shareholder in the 80's I would have gone ape-sh*t at them for allowing so much of their credit turnover to come from one customer. A terrible, terrible way to run a business.

1988, following the 1987 stock market crash, and later the Japanese market bubble bursting, Ramsden lost a staggering £58 million gambling on horse racing and suffered a capital loss of £100 million.

In 1991, he was arrested and jailed in Los Angles for six months while awaiting extradition to the United Kingdom for fraud. A claim Ramsden denied.

By 1992, he was in debt to the tune of £100 million. He was declared bankrupt and pleaded guilty in 1993 to recklessly inducing fresh investments into Glen International. He received a two year suspended sentence.

However, in 1997, he breached his Insolvency Act after it was discovered he was hiding £300,000 in assets and sentenced to almost two years in prison. He served 10 months.

His wife had left him, all the hangers-on nowhere to be seen.

think i managed 2 minutes.

The second, third and fourth parts are worth a listen if you enjoy racing nostalgia but you'd not learn anything or be inspired by him.

Seems like the interview was conducted on the basis of no uncomfortable questions about the mistakes in his life,which only left the historic anecdotes where he got the better of the books.I knew terry & he was a funny generous man in those days,the interview leaves an aftertaste of bitterness though like life’s short changed him & messing around with the £20 notes & thank you card stamps him as an analogue man yet to move onto digital.can’t be easy though living like an ordinary person when you’ve been so rich.

enjoyed it, he came from nothing made a fortune and will still have some of it, things like pensions they cant take away from you even bankrupts

a lot of other pro gambling interviews you can see through them and a lot of bull

The Knight , Ladbrokes came out in front tens of millions. How was he a bad customer ?

howard....where did I say he was a bad customer? Nowhere.

You have not read the post correctly, or perhaps misunderstood it?

Yes, they came out massively in front with him but do some research and see what happened to the turnover and profits of the Laddies credit division in the couple of years after his gambling ended. They fell by very large amounts.

No business should be so heavily reliant upon just one customer for so much turnover and profit. Imagine you had a shop where one customer was buying 75% of your goods. Then the customer stops coming in suddenly. You are overstocked, have few other customers and have to basically start afresh. No way to do things.

What Laddies should have been doing while Ramsden was at his most active was using some of the vast profits they made from him to find new customers and expand. That would have reduced the percentage of their total turnover that was coming from Ramsden.

But, no, they sat back and became complacent. Like I said, no way to run a business.

270k 11/2 in the 80s

they send £10 bets to the traders  for me and have to wait have wait 5 mins,

what went wrong

The knight , what you say about Laddies can't be disputed but it's hardly the same as other businesses where you may have borrowed heavily to buy expensive physical stock that you now can't get rid of.  You seem to suggest that if Ramsden hadn't existed everything would be fine.

Isn’t the point that ramsden became such a cash cow for them that they didn’t need to try that hard with the rest of the punters.

blinded by massive profits and bonuses,you can only imagine they got caught in the moment thinking it would never end.human nature i suppose.

I've always thought Ladcrookes were rotten to the core. Did they really take 58 million off him with a 2 million credit line in a few years? What would that be in today's terms 140 million 4 million?  No bookie would be allowed to run a business like that nowadays.

I always remember Cry for a Clown winning at 33/1 Newmarket in 1987 and Derek Thompson interviewed him and asked him how much he had won and although putting on a brave face it was clear nobody had fancied it. He looked like the saddest winning owner ever.

With that much cash he could have made the good times last a lot longer.

howard...you must have some magic glasses or something!! LOL

Again, you are reading into my post things that are not there. I was not saying in anyway that without Ramsden all would have been OK at Laddies. I cannot see where you are picking that up from.

I repeat, depending upon ONE client for so much revenue (and profit) is a really daft way to run a business.

With small outfits, especially at the start, that cannot be always avoided but this was the multi-million pound Laddies!

Believe me, I know from my City days throughout the 1980's, the board at Laddies went beserk when they found what the credit division had been up to with TR. Their reputation was seriously undermined for a while.

Barrowboy sums it up perfectly with his post but that was their stupidity. Sat back and stopped trying while their rivals were still recruiting clients. TR disappeared and Laddies were left behind for quite a while.

(And if I had a shop dependent upon one customer for 75% of my business, I would be buying stock on a 'just in time basis', or insuring it, in case that one customer disappeared!!)

That's why I admire such as Stephen Little or Freddie Williams. Boards /shareholders don't want any risk. Just millions of small mugs like a 3 6 5 operation.

watched a good few of these,the bloke, Simon Nott,does a decent job
to me,let's the person talk without interupting.Newsboy,Tanya(Ch4)&
Tom Power,were all good to watch.

if it is was now terry would have no story betfair would have added a 100 monthly affordability deposit limit on his account and he would be forced to try and get it removed speaking to rico ,igor ,umberto or santa and the rest on malta livechat getting absolutely nowhere

Thats why there's more and more illegal bookmakers about nowadays, and it'll get worse