The first weekend in late March or early April means only
one thing in the racing world, The Grand National Steeple Chase at Aintree, sponsored
this year by Crabbie’s. It got me thinking of how straight forward and
uncomplicated betting used to be. My first punt, like most of us in the UK, was
on the Grand National, 1986 to be precise. I spent most weekends at my grandparent’s
house, helping my grandad choose his bets on Saturday morning. He sent my gran
down the road with 4 pound notes for his bets and fags. He’d then sit in his
chair and watch the racing all afternoon with me next to him.
As a way of teaching me an early lesson in the ills of
gambling, my dad allowed me to bet my weekly 50p pocket-money on one of the
horses and he’d stand the odds. I settled on West Tip (I loved the colour blue
at the time) and it came in at about 8/1. My dad grudgingly forked over the
cash as my grandad sat in his chair smirking.
Thanks Dad, lesson learned! That was betting back then. Just pick a
horse and see if it wins or places.
How things change. Trawling through the betting markets on
laptop, tablet and iPhone this morning, I was inundated with ways of parting
with my money and reasons to do so. State of the art technology, on-line
betting, mobile phone apps, instant score updates, in-play betting, on-line
betting exchanges and easy access to internet betting accounts are just some of
the advances since the days of West Tip. But it’s not just the technology or
the channels available by which to place your bet that have changed. The
markets are now as diverse as ever as bookies fight for a unique identity in
the homogenised market of on-line gambling.
For example, forget the race itself, with at least two
on-line bookmakers a punter can bet on who will be favourite (shortest odds) as
the tape goes up, making it possible to win before the horses race. Customers
can bet on the weather at ‘the off’ or which Liverpool footballers will be in
attendance as well as other celebrity appearances. While the markets around
horse-racing have developed along novelty lines, outside of the sporting
markets it’s now possible to bet on just about anything in the public eye.
The latest from Paddy Power is a bet on how many pairs of
breasts appear in Game of Thrones 4. One of the more macabre bets available is
the next Irish county to experience the epicentre of an earthquake. Wicklow is
currently the favourite at 3/1. Reassuringly for residents the safest place to
be is obviously Tipperary at 100/1.
There’s a whole sector devoted to the royalists out there
with odds available on the sex and name of Will & Kate’s second child,
Harry’s wife and which university George attends. For the worshippers of planet
celebrity, odds are available with Ladbrokes on Christmas No 1, when David
Hasselhoff will pop the question and the day that Lord Sugar will pass a
million Twitter followers.
This type of ‘speciality’ or ‘novelty’ bet is viewed as a
bit of fun by most but it belies a stealthy and calculated approach by
bookmakers to widen the net and drag in those who would never entertain the
thought of getting involved with traditional betting markets. In the days of
West Tip there seemed to be a polarised view on gambling in the UK. It was seen
as either a bit of harmless fun or the road to ruin. However, the national
de-stigmatisation of gambling - starting with the inception of the National
Lottery - is nearly complete and the introduction of obscure betting offers and
markets has, ironically, only popularised gambling further.
