Spoils and Billys

Just heard it on RTE's News at One.

Confirmed,they are taking over 15 Billys shops in Ireland.

15 more shops for you to get on what you like hammy. Good times for you.

that's crap, even less choice

have to sign up online now

"Any truth in the rumour that Spoils are about to take Billys shops."
How does something you heard on the news become a rumour?

WILLIAM HILL SELL OUT TO ****
Article Date: 03-November-2011
irishfield.com


William Hill PLC has agreed the sale of its remaining 15 shops in the Republic of Ireland to ****. The completion of the sale is expected in early December.

The Company is now entering a consultation period with the 65 shop employees affected by the sale.

William Hill will continue to operate in Ireland through its website, www.williamhill.com.

“The time came for us to either expand our retail estate in Ireland or to concentrate our efforts on our thriving Irish online and mobile betting businesses,” said Brian McColgan, Regional Operations Controller at William Hill,  ‘We took a lot of time to consider our options and decided the restrictive nature of the Irish retail betting sector would have made expansion financially unviable.’

“We’d like to thank our staff for all of their help over the last seven years and we’d like to wish them the best of luck in the future.” said McColgan

William Hill PLC is listed on the London Stock Exchange (WMH.L) and operates over 2,300 betting shops in Britain and Northern Ireland. The William Hill Group employs over 15,000 people worldwide and reported a net revenues of around €1.2 bn in 2010.

Earlier this ye

No mention of their shops in the North ?

The only difference between operating North of the border versus south of the border would be the FOBT's I assume . I would apply the "restrictive nature "of the Irish retail betting sector to South and North equally .

What made betting shops viable North or South was individuality and value , if you had character and offered value ( and were not overly restrictive ) you got business , at margins which in the past were OK , but nowadays are not due to greater competition and awareness in punters .

Like a lot of other business ventures now , the laws of diminishing returns are beginning to bite . Spent about half an hour today in a bookies while my wife was visiting hospital , reading the papers etc , putting in my time .  Had a bet on the Breeders Cup myself .  In that period nobody else approached the counter for a bet .  Dead , used to be a busy office in the good old days , now part of a large ( successful ) chain , but few punters . Downward spiral I am afraid  , hope none of you own one .

Thats half the problem Kelly the other half if you are willing to have customers in your shop you must be willing to lay bets. Which might in fact ring true then about a post that appeared here a few weeks ago that Spoils where starting to lay b ets

On the evidence of oddschecker , Spoils quite often seem to be taking more "positions " than most of their competitors .  Good to see , no point in just posting up prices which nobody wants because they can better it on here  , which is the case nowadays for most of the bean counter bookies .

Bookies need turnover more than they need bean counters  , that fact will ultimately be the only arbiter for those who survive a fallout which has been predicted for a long time .

Spoils may take positions.. ie pricing up first on irish racing etc but still to a book of 140-150%.

Recently I had a winner with them where I took 4/1 to 15 euros and it ended up 7/1 sp and they refused to pay best price guarantee saying that they had sent me a mail saying that i was not eligeble for these offers.
Support told me to like it or lump it basically and never even produced the e-mail supposedly sent. No googwill shall ever be shown seems to be the company motto.

I bet tenners e/w and the odd 20/30. This year (after several loosing years) I was up a measly 380 euros on 670 stakes. Most was down to one 40 euros bet at cheltenham that returned 330.

So there you go about them willing to lay/loose take on the punter etc or whatever!
(all business on-line)

I didnt hear it on the news smart alec.

Let's hope Tony Kenny is looked after.

He didn't have his weekly say on The Irish Angle yesterday.

Boyles regularly price up overnight Kelly but they won't lay a bean to anyone - there's no point pricing up at 9pm if the max bet will be 63p E/W.

Tom - that's not unusual, I received an e-mail from them 2 months or so back saying they will no longer take bets from me over the phone and that I have to use the internet (bet to win £10 on singles) or the Iphone/Android App (not tried this yet).  That same night I tried to place a bet on one of their overnight handicap prices, just a horse I fancied nothing shifty about it, not a huge gambling yard Elliot, Tony Martin, Byrnes etc. and received the pop up message advising me to call the call centre to place the bet.  Joke - I placed my bet small stakes and a mate backed it too, nothing major as I'm not a big punter but if you're going to restrict punters then at least cut the price (the price was still available 6 hours later).

tom40
04 Nov 11 12:21 Joined: 13 Mar 07 | Topic/replies: 174 | Blogger: tom40's blog
Spoils may take positions.. ie pricing up first on irish racing etc but still to a book of 140-150%.

Recently I had a winner with them where I took 4/1 to 15 euros and it ended up 7/1 sp and they refused to pay best price guarantee saying that they had sent me a mail saying that i was not eligeble for these offers.
Support told me to like it or lump it basically and never even produced the e-mail supposedly sent. No googwill shall ever be shown seems to be the company motto.

I bet tenners e/w and the odd 20/30. This year (after several loosing years) I was up a measly 380 euros on 670 stakes. Most was down to one 40 euros bet at cheltenham that returned 330.

So there you go about them willing to lay/loose take on the punter etc or whatever!
(all business on-line)

This post tells you all you need to know about Bsports. I wouldn't insult **** by calling them that.

Worked for William Hill for a long time,its not surprising what happened,it was just a matter of time before they pulled out.

Getting the FOBT's was their number 1 priority when they arrived in Ireland and when that was blocked they could'nt/would'nt compete with the other bookmakers.

As regareds Tony Kenny,what he was saying about bets and money being taking should be taken with a huge pinch of salt imo like most PR people who work for bookmakers.

Hope the staff are looked after well,some really nice people worked for them.

spoils and billy bunter are masquerading as "bookies". the blind taking shops off the blind.
wanted an even 200 on a world cup rugby match with bunter. they rang head office for acceptance!!

I know shops aren't turning over anything these days and the margin is tight,but 15 shops for 1.5 mill is def.buying at basement prices.

Of course it didnt help Billys that their founder was a Black and Tan based in Mallow during the 1920s.

Knew a man who worked with that B & T in London in the early days . I was glad to take money off them , then they  closed my account a few years ago . Seldom visit their shops  here in the North , most  are in the wrong parts for me  .

DJ876 , is that the price they are talking about ? 100K per shop ?

If it is it makes Ladcrokes purchase of 48 shops from Westwoods for 135 million approx look like a very diminished asset . The bean counters dont always get things right . At least NAMA aren't involved .

Like comparing apples and oranges comparing shop prices up north with those down south. There is but a handful of new licences issued up north ever year, they offer little or no concessions in their shops, and the have the FOBTs ..

i'd make 100k a shop pretty expensive for the pitches Hills had - other than the old Stanley shop in ballybane in Galway, i'd fancy that one!!

Kelly -link below article on the price
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2011/1104/1224307038223.html

I thought it was cheap,but independents tell me u r working at a 3/4 % net margin,any independent I know -is trading /laying (in back rooms and upstairs)on sis pics as their main income.

Not just the small independents , DJ , think the exchanges are the focal point of all bookmaking operations big or small these days .

Dame street shop decent, the rest two bob. At least coffee and biccys anyhow (and somewhere to have a dump)

Their custard creams will be much valued in Pearse Street and the Bath avenue.

u hear any more rumours on the news hammy?

2 shops in Ballyfermot are beside a big Boyles shop with 2 Paddies with striking distance.

The smaller Hills shop is likely to close.

Dorset st isnt far from a Spoils either but will probably stay for the moment.

I was in a Hills shop in Ballaly recently and it was a nice shop.

Pat Potter uk Independent boookmaker tweeted
Hills Gibraltar based mobile phone betting platform up 300% in last year. No tax, no levy, bet in the pub. Nice one Gambling Commission.

heard that Laddies are to close a few of their shops in the west today
..............watch this space

another absolute irrelevance. the disdain with which laddies treat their customers in ireland is disgraceful