Iâve heard of a few different punters over the course of the week who were told they would be âsorted out the next dayâ when they went to collect their winnings. A few of these were lowish 3 figure sums.
When I was in college I used to do the odd Saturday/Sunday for a small rails bookie. He would lay a horse for no more than 1500/2000 euro per race. On a good day he might then have turnover of 3000/3500 per race. I did most courses - Galway (non-festival) Gowran, Thurles, Limerick Junction etc etc and turnover never really changed. Did point to points aswell and he would never lay a horse to lose more than a grand at a PTP.
This chap isnât doing it much any more and told me recently that the only thing keeping the game going now is money from new entrants.
I saw a lad have 4k to win 6k on Thursday in Listowel, he won as well. I was surprised he got the bet on with relatively little bother, he was told that if it won he wouldnât be getting paid that day though!
I was talking to a bookie at the Tipperary races a few weeks ago. He was saying the whole thing is gone. He said years ago youâd fellas betting 200 etc whereas now itâs only all tenners and twentyâs⌠And even then thereâs hardly anyone going to most of these meetings.
Itâs been dead for a while now. Betfair was the start of it. They could hold their own while attendences were up during the boom but once buildings stopped being built all the silly money on course stopped.
I know a couple of bookies who could have made 20,000 in a single meeting around 15 years ago and the same lads would be lucky to turn over that amount over a 4 day festival now.
Got an email from Hacketts there to say theyâre switching off their online presence and just keeping shops and the phone service. Whatâs the thinking there, surely the web is the cheapest option?
They wonât lose much sleep iâd say over losing their sole internet customer.
Hacketts.
I had plenty of bets online with Hacketts as well, and although they were divils for poor max stakes, their prices arenât the worst.
It was the only place I could bet that wasnât blocked in my job too, which was always worth something. Canât understand why they would close the site but maybe it wasnât paying for itself and after all, if someone can reach a computer they can reach a phone.
[quote=âSledgehammerâ]I had plenty of bets online with Hacketts as well, and although they were divils for poor max stakes, their prices arenât the worst.
It was the only place I could bet that wasnât blocked in my job too, which was always worth something. Canât understand why they would close the site but maybe it wasnât paying for itself and after all, if someone can reach a computer they can reach a phone.[/quote]
A small/medium place like Hacketts probably wouldnât be able to develop their own software to handle transactions etc so would be paying someone like paypal to handle all the funds and they would be taking a cut of it. After the different handling charges were taken out it probably wasnât worth their while. Just a thought, could be wrong.
[quote=âSledgehammerâ]I had plenty of bets online with Hacketts as well, and although they were divils for poor max stakes, their prices arenât the worst.
It was the only place I could bet that wasnât blocked in my job too, which was always worth something. Canât understand why they would close the site but maybe it wasnât paying for itself and after all, if someone can reach a computer they can reach a phone.[/quote]
Same here, only one that you could get through with work. We have the same firewall software obviously.
Can yez access oddschecker.com lads? You can link through to various places from there so there might be more than Hacketts.
logged me in fineâŚ
[quote=âThe Runtâ]Is the Powers site bollixed?
Only getting the mobile version when I log in.
www.paddypower.com[/quote]
Working fine for me. Did you try turning it off and back on again?
I even tried Firefox.
ctrl, alt, del?
Back working again now.
Thatâs the 2nd time today itâs acted up.
Still managed to get on Sampers there in the last in Dundalk. BOOM.
[quote=âThe Runtâ]Back working again now.
Thatâs the 2nd time today itâs acted up.
Still managed to get on Sampers there in the last in Dundalk. BOOM.[/quote]
you did ya
you did ya[/quote]
I did and Iâve denton backed here
you didâŚI rather stupidly took The Voiceâs word and backed Fiery LadâŚwould be shocked if Mastercraftsman doesnât win but is unbackable