Who’s Afraid of The Bag Man?
On-Course bookmakers have been pleasantly surprised in the upturn of business in the betting ring of late, it's even been reported in the press. There are various reasons for this, firstly casual racegoers appear very comfortable to come into the ring to have their fivers as part of their day out which excellent to see and credit to the layers who put them at ease in what is to the majority a very alien environment. You don't have to be the lovechild of Sherlock Holmes and Mystic Meg to work out the other reason for more money finding its way back to the racecourse is affordability checks and restrictions. People that are serious about racing and betting have realised that the last bastion of proper bookmaking is where it all began, at the racecourse.
While the extra influx of money is welcomed, this type of new and lumpy business is proving very hard to beat. The serious money bet on racecourses isn’t from haunted eyed gambling addicts, no they have already been embraced by the illegal layers, once in their clutches are never going to be let go. Contrary to common belief those types of people never bet at the races anyway. No, it's the ones that always got the money, the professionals, those black market bookies are going to be no more welcoming to people that win that legal ones, now that liquidity on Betfair has gone pear shaped and betting shop stick-ons are largely a thing of the past, it’s the sharp money back on course.
There have always been winning punters in the betting ring, professional backers, trainers that seldom seemed to back a loser when their money was down, skilled paddock watchers, form students, jockey's drivers, trainers wives and just people with their ears to the ground. The big difference was the bookies knew who they were and respected and acted on their wagers accordingly or they went through middle-men bookies, who were also known to handle live bets. That was back before pretty much all of them turned to Betfair when they could get what they liked on making the well-informed redundant and soon painfully finding out what life without a marked card was like.
The new breed of ‘bag-man’ that are appearing on racecourses are largely anonymous, some don’t appear to have much idea about betting or even getting on which has been obvious, trying to bet two races early at mid-week meetings and not knowing what FRACTIONS are. They aren’t to be underestimated though, they do seem to have those extremely well marked cards. It was always important to know who’d had the bet and ‘what it meant’, with these new faces appearing on a weekly basis, it’s very expensive for the racecourse bookies to find out who’s just had a lucky start or sticking on for an apex predator.
One thing is easy to work out, who the prey is.
The life of a racecourse bookie has always fraught with danger, but just got a whole lot more exciting!
Simon Nott
Former Betfair users who have deserted the platform who haven't given the fast growing Matchbook Betting Exchange a spin yet might want to investigate opening an account, as there's an 110 day coms free offer on at present.
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