This will always be a divisive topic and I expect quite a bit of pushback from those within the industry. As we step back and try to look at the bigger picture as to what the gambling industry (bookmakers NOT exchanges) has become in 2023 and where it will be.
Many within the industry will tell you that the majority of customers have never had it so good. They have more markets than ever to bet on. With all the various concessions now available, they are getting more ‘entertainment’ than ever before for their pound of flesh. Congratulations to all involved. It has been a masterful effort to get the industry to this point. I am often left shaking my head both in respect and bemusement. Respect in that it has been allowed to unfold like this in full view of the regulators. Bemusement because it is scarcely believable. At this point I need to adjust my statement from earlier. Change the words ‘majority of’ with ‘losing’. Losing customers have never had it so good.
Let’s be clear if you have shown even the slightest inclination of being successful you will be hounded out of this industry. Yes that’s right. The message from the UK bookmakers has never been clearer. Winners are not welcome under any circumstances. If you show the tendencies of a winning punter you will not be welcome either. Even if you aren’t even actually winning. You will be banned and restricted in an increasingly fast and ruthless manner. As the data capture of the bookmakers increases, the noose around winning/marginal punters necks tightens ever more. Only losers are welcome. The bigger the better. Affordability checks and social responsibility measures have thrown bit of a spanner in the works for the biggest losers but you can be rest assured the industry will be trying to chisel out every single pound from the other losers that they can, to make up for it.
Banning winners or those who may win is literally the bookmaker sticking their hands up and saying we are not very good at this job. We will compensate for that by just banning and restricting people. Lazy albeit profitable. It’s a terrible customer experience. This isnt a tweet about the poor pro who isnt allowed to fleece the bookmakers anymore. I see the phrase ‘the bookmaker doesn’t exist just to provide a pro a living’ so often. So many people are being restricted who simply never should be.
Winners have never been overly welcome in the industry. When I first started, winners tended to be the cost of doing business. The business of price discovery. You could live with taking -EV bets if you could use that information to your advantage. What has changed? Price discovery is now done through the betting exchanges, odds comparison sites and third party pricing solutions. The roll of the traditional odds compiler has never been more obsolete. It’s all about risk management now. The bookies have never had it so easy. When you throw in the ability to restrict or ban as many accounts as you want it almost doesn’t matter what prices you are offering. Has an industry ever felt more hollow and disingenuous. So predatory.
The big difference was that I could aspire to make a few pounds from betting. I could back my opinion and the cards/results would fall as they may. This current iteration of the industry is destroying even those aspirations. People have to be able to aspire to win. Eventually people and the media will recognise the betting industry for what it has become. One of the biggest grifts of our time. The big legalised betting industry where you can only participate in it if you are a loser. Ordinary, marginal players discarded from the industry.
Where we are literally bombarded from all sides every day, telling us how amazing it is and making it appear easy to be successful. That you have a chance. Here have some free money. We have so called experts and celebrities extolling the virtues of the said companies. We are bombarded by tipsters telling us sure fire winners to help us make money. All these things are done in the anticipation that they will return a profit. Make a profit though and you will lose your accounts before you know it. More so if the price has been smashed in. Go and use exchanges, black market bookmakers or those based overseas. It is genuinely hard enough to get paid in a timely manner by the regulated bookies in this country without those associated risks. It also defeats the purposes of generating tax revenues and responsible gambling initiatives.
It has simply gone too far now. One of the Gambling Commissions three stated aims is, ‘ensuring that gambling is conducted in a fair and open way’. How anyone can think that objective is being met with the current situation is beyond me. Even if you ignore all the questionable and scummy behaviour from the bookmakers, the one right every customer should have is the ability to win. If you remove that, then you shouldn’t have an industry called betting. With the way sports betting is going it is more akin to a casino game where you will lose eventually. I didn’t realise the 4th aim of the Gambling Commission was to maximise bookmaker profits at all costs, by rewarding failure, whilst minimising any risk.
Just like it was obvious for anyone to see that the bookmakers wouldn’t be allowed to continue to behave in the way they were with regard to problem gambling, I honestly think this will rear it’s ugly head eventually. Bookmakers will get what they deserve. You just cannot have an industry called the betting industry where people are not allowed to win. Who knows how it will come about and in what guise (maybe someone in America will challenge the restrictions). I feel confident that it wont be the Gambling Commission.
Restrictions under certain circumstances are fine. It can’t be because you might win though. The industry has to do a better job. Stop being rewarded for incompetence. Stop being scared you might occasionally lose. Behave like bookmakers. It is the norm though now. If enough people say something you will eventually believe it. The echo chambers of Twitter make you believe it is acceptable. This version of the betting industry is amazing for the profits of the big companies. Losers are rewarded disproportionately.
It needs the media and high profile figures to step up and call the industry out on it properly. Not some half arsed effort when others are on the bandwagon. Virtue signalling. Ask the bookie reps the tough questions. Strive for more. If winners are not welcome then the bookmakers should be forced to disclose that on every piece of advertising they undertake. At the moment the industry is telling one big fat lie to all those involved who hope one day they might be able to actually win.
Banning winners is simply the bookmaking industry’s lazy answer to incompetence. The problem is that so few recognise this for what it is. If you want a bookmakers licence then you should be forced to actually start behaving like a bookmaker.
ProPunting 