Bookmakers dictating Irish Racing

Quite a sad rule really, was looking worse when i read in the phoenix mag that the association was trying to say they would open every night there was irish dog racing even if they didn't take bets on it

Same stunt is been carried out on Wednesday, Down Patrick last race is at 18:35.

They will be open every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for the next while as well with Dundalk.

If they provide enough funding let them dictate to an extent, but these boys are taking a lot more then they are giving.

pure greeeeeeeed

They should be open until 9:30 every night anyway.

Betting shop staff in Ireland I'd say look forward to september where the bulk of the evening racing is capult apart from the odd floodlit meeting from Dundalk after nearly 5 months of non stop racing morning noon and night, these people have families too you know Distant View.
They work Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays when nearly everyone else is off, the only little respite they have is on Christmas Day and Easter Sunday it won't be long before the bookies find away around that aswell they already usurped good friday.

Its very suspicious how this arrangement has come to bear between the bookies and the Irish racecourses?, there is obvious collusion here.
Someone said to me if the last race in Ireland is fixed for after 6.25pm the shops are legally entitled to stay open till 9.30.
It happened today and its the same again at Sligo wednesday, will somebody explain to me what the racecourses stand to gain from this blatant time fixing, is someone at HRI the beneficiary of a bulky brown envelope or two that has allowed this situation to occur?.

If they want more money off the books, they'll have to make it look like they're doing things to please them.

slivergreaser i couldnt have put it better myself!! brown envelope job NAP

Sounds plausible rowley, a representative of bookmakers assossciation must have approached HRI incognito and dangled a little carrot, you scratch our back and we yours.
It all has a very suspicious air about it how these racetimes suddenly changed when September arrived?.

Bring in part time staff or additional staff to share the extra workload and balance the hours out over the course of the working week.

In a time when unemployment is rife and additional 15 - 18 hours opening time is a job creator. This will be even more during the winter when the shops in many cases close around 4:30 - 5:00.

Whether the morality regarding finishing is questionable is another matter, but deriding something which could create employment even on a part time basis is wrong.

Distant they don't do that, all they do is stagger the shifts among the staff already employed, they do the same amount of hours for no extra pay for working more ungodly hours, it doesn't create any jobs at all.

Shops now stay open during the winter util 6.30, some independents might close a little earlier, the days of the shops closing after the last day race from England or Ireland usually around 3.45 in winter are long gone.

If the legislation was changed so that opening hours were to 9:30 each evening, then they would have to bring in extra staff. It simply could not be accommodated among the existing staff. If there is a problem with how staff are treated and if they are being abused regarding their working hours, that is another matter. I am sure there are authorities that would listen to any complaints of this nature and plcs such as PP and Lads are hardly likely to want to court publicity of this nature.

What is the average working week of existing staff anyway (spread out over the 52 week year)?

How you can call working until 9:30 in the evening, an ungodly hour is beyond me. How many people work shifts (granted there is an allowance for late shifts)that might start at the time you are referring to as ungodly, or straddle this time (4pm - 12pm etc).

How working a weekend (assuming that the same person does not work 7 days a week) can be described as something which should be moaned about is again beyond me. Regular businesses in the retail trade or service trade do this (and start at 9:00am), so what is different about bookmakers?

Other people may have differing views, but to paint a picture that betting shop staff are at their wits end and that the arrival of September / October is imperative for the preservation of their sanity is nonsense. There are thousands who are ready to step into the breach, if working these hours is beyond the capacity of existing staff.

Additional hours would be a very welcome development.

Distant view most people in employment work 9 to 5 or 10 to 6, there are exceptions of course the growth of consumerism has very much dictated in some quarters, other jobs are dependent on early starts and early finish or vice versa late start.

Distant the main point of my argument is bookmakers have worked their magic to change the whole face of how betting shops now operate, betting shop staff working hours have changed significantly and dramatically over the last 10 years or so, but the bookmakers just won't let up, seems they'll never be happy until they are open 24/7 365 days a year.
There was no need for this obvious collusion between the bookmakers and Irish racecourses it was sneaky and as I said very suspicious, this was done behind the backs of the staff, not all betting shop staff are 20 something single girls many are married with children, but that never bothered the greedy heartless bookmaker, just when they were looking forward to a little breathing space after months of evening racing they have this trust on them.

How much do racecourses get from SIS per race/ per race meeting?

Many staff at this point in betting shops can be single manning up to 12hrs at a time, for this they have an hour and a half of break periods deducted from their pay despite them not having a realistic opportunity of taking a break in this day. There is no cover provided at any point during the day. They will take advantage where they can and they need to cut costs. B

Job creation is fine, but it's not happening the IBA have claimed they can create 3,000 jobs, the figure is pure pie in the sky the reports supposedly supporting this show no calculations of how this figure will be met. The industry is losing jobs and will lose more over the next 2 months, it suffers from massive over capacity of outlets and it suffers from an inequitable tax regime and with betting shops running at such a low margin the 2% tax on turnover will be fatal for most providers. It can't compete with online providers and customers are happy to switch to online providers.

The low margins were always going to be unsustainable.

Distant opening till 920 would not create any more jobs at all the big companys (esp laddies cos ive witnessed it in their shops) will do is single man shops after 6pm,so you have a young girl sitting behind the counter on her own on the dark winter evenings!! might aswell put a sign on the window saying rob me please,personally i think its digracefull on the bookmakers part claiming it would create more jobs BULL

sinndar001 has it rumbled,i think the racecourses receive about 35 thousand a meeting from SIS and tis they that decide the times of races.Its that 35 grand that keeps the whole show on the road and has made some racecourses complacent in that they have lost interest with the ordinary racegoer,i sometimes get the impression they would rather run the races behind closed doors.

SQUIGS

We were in Roscommon yesterday and were commenting how many jobs have been lost in the Irish betting ring. Yesterday was an exception in that there was 40+ books . Many of them were singlehanded clerking for themselves and probably only 7 or 8 firms had a runner.
3 years ago all these guys would have had a clerk and at least 1/2 would have had a runner. Also there would have been 50 odd books there.

The SIS payments while stablising racecourses finances have indirectly ruined the average day at the races. Wild man , I believe SIS pay 38K of which 31K goes to the racecource and 7K goes to the HRI.  Courses were swooping like vultures to replace any cancelled meetings. No effort required .... easy money.. open the gates the people will  come.... corporate this corporate that.... Limericks extensive brochure (80+ pages) had only three pages not concerning corporate entertainment and packages. The ordinary racegoer was not courted in any shape or form .Their eye was off the ball or maybe they were ball watching
It was like a bar owner ignoring his regulars because some big spending once a year client (corporate speak) flashed a few euros. we all know how that bar is going. Some tracks face a mountaineous uphill struggle to attract racing crowds again. I'm thinking of Limerick, the Curragh, Leopardstown, fairyhouse in fact most of our grade 1 tracks.

Coincidental?

I must say some of the smaller provincial tracks are honourable exceptions to the above.





















hey would have held

SIS is owned by Ladbrokes 23%, Caledonia Investments 22.5%, Alternateport Limited 20.5%, William Hill Organisation 19.5%, Fred Done 7.5% and Tote 6%. Minor shareholdings are also held by Leicester Racecourse Holdings Limited, The Bibury Club Limited (Salisbury), Stratford on Avon Racecourse co Ltd, Thirsk Racecourse Ltd, Catterick Racecourse Compnay Ltd and Frontrelay Ltd.

Ladbrokes PLC, William Hill Organization Limited and the Horserace Totaliser Board are all shareholders of Satellite Information Services (Holdings) Limited. Mr Fred Done (the owner of Betfred bookmakers) is also a private shareholder. Shareholder bookmakers therefore account for approximately 5,800 LBOs receiving the SIS service. Each of the bookmaker shareholders have board members representing them on the SIS (Holdings) Board in the form of Nick Rust(Ladbrokes), Fred Done (Betfred), David Steele (William Hill) and Joe Scanlon (Tote).

SIS/Bookmakers same thing, I still don't believe it was SIS who dictated the recent extended racetimes for Irish race meetings, you'll find something more sinister went on?.

the whole thing is sneaky and very unfair regarding staff. bookies staff have it tough enough without these 'surprises', you'll go along way to find someone happy working in a bookmakers these days, tedious job working with alcos and gambling addicts all day. then along with all these nights, must be horrible for staff these days, happy staff make a happy shop and enjoyable shop to punt in, who wants to be served by someone who hates there job?

da fallon factor 19 Sep 11 19:29   
Found it funny how the last race this evening had a starting time of 6.35 thus enabling laddies b0yles etc to keep their shops open till 930pm how convenient.

Fallon, they got great mileage out of the 6 35 finishes, right up tho the end of September.
I think tomorrow will be the end of it bar Friday's till next Spring when we will all be older and wiser!!