Did you know that I used to work as a Deputy Manager at a high street bookmaker some five years ago? I suppose not, but I did and although it was not a career choice for me I certainly learned a lot about how Horse Racing works and how the mind of the average punter works. My job entailed taking and accounting for the money, paying out the money to customers (which was less than what we took of course) and cashing up at the end of the day bundling all of the money into the safe. I also had to help customers if they wanted to learn how to bet on horses and keep them smiling by being funny and interesting. This cunning strategy of being their friends usually led to them staying in the shop and continuing to bet. Now you know why betting shop managers are so friendly.

I accept that I am being a little controversial here. There was one golden rule that the company drilled into every new starter in that we were not allowed to discourage nor encourage anyone to gamble. If the punters asked for a betting tip or what horse a punter on a hot streak had bet on unfortunately I could not say. Having a punter turn around and say “I bet on it because he (being me) told me to” was more than my job was worth, which was not much as it happened.

Despite us not encouraging betting, when punters are in a betting shop then they are surrounded by various opportunities and are in a betting environment when the number one topic of conversation is anecdotes by punters on that last bet that went so well for them. How rude it would be for me to point out the brand new interior, new TV screens and all manner of betting slips, pens and even my uniform was paid out of bets that did not go so well.

After being in the shop for so long and seeing the various subliminal tricks used to get people to bet made me realise that the online sportsbooks like bwin.com offer a more ethical service in my view because they do not use any tricks, they simply offer a user-friendly interface to have a bet should the punter have already made the decision to do so. There is no influencing of this decision no matter how indirect. I like that bwin relies on simply giving punters the odds in a pleasant way and allows them to play using easy betting methods. Everything is made easy for the customer not to encourage them to bet, but to facilitate them having a bet if they have decided to do that.

Ultimately I moved on to bigger and better things in my career but I did notice one strange phenomenon. In each and every Horse race there is one horse that when punters read the form they invariably bet on. This is the “gamble” horse that odds shoot in for no apparent reason. This horse does not always win, but there is usually a reliable tip or good information from a trainer that gets around and causes this action. Whilst I would never say that this can be a profitable way to bet, being able to spot this horse in the field does suggest that you are reading the form card in the right way.

What I like about betting online is you can have useful sites like Oddschecker or sporting life on your computer to get up to the minute information. This sort of information is all but stifled in the betting shop environment. Given the choice, I choose bwin because I am in control, not the betting shop.

By Malcolm Clarke

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