Eden Bookmakers Austin Carney TVC Bookmakers' Trade Fair CONTENTS ISSUE 211
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BOS magazine Provided by: MannyBernstein Eden Bookmakers Austin Carney TVC Bookmakers' Trade Fair CONTENTS ISSUE 211 Page 3 A WORD - OR SEVERAL - OF THANKS Comment BOS Magazine is back. only way we could Now, here we are. And Page 4 It’s been nine months continue as the voice we would like very Eden Bookmakers since the final print of the independent much to state our Page 6 edition, the Novem- bookmaker would be appreciation for the Austin Carney ber/December 2015 to find someone with support of BOS issue, went out, 34 the financial backing Magazine from Page 8 years after its debut. and technological Don Noble/Manny John Bickell Due to the rising costs knowhow we didn’t Bernstein, particularly of printing and possess. Richard Noble and Page 9 postage, the idea had In early July, my Tony Nicholls, along Winning Post baptism of fire been to relaunch as a husband Chris and I with Adam Williams at Cheltenham purely online were invited to Market for his IT expertise. publication sometime Page 10 Rasen racecourse for We’re not in the spring. Some the annual meeting exaggerating when we Moore’s Ascot Masterclass minor setbacks and sponsored by Don say we truly couldn’t Page 12-33 what might be termed Noble Bookmakers. have done it without in modern parlance as TVC Bookmakers’ Trade Fair The subject of the you. ‘logistical challenges’ advertisers future of BOS came up We couldn’t. Thank meant a launch date in casual conversation, Page 20-24 you. kept getting delayed. which led to a TVC Bookmakers’ Trade Fair We couldn’t take it on proposal, followed by MARY PITT Catalogue by ourselves. It was a plan. Editor Page 34 clear to us that the Angus Dalrymple: The Strange Case of the Secret Office Page 36 Gambling Commission news Page 38 Matt Howe reflects on whirlwind year Page 40 Leicester win right result for Wales bookie Richard Noble and Tony Nicholls on Don Noble Race Day at Market Rasen http://bos.mannybernstein.co.uk BOS Magazine - October 2016 Page 2 Comment WE’RE BACK. There’s been a lot should be emphasised whenever bookmakers opt to completely get going on in our absence. In August the subject of betting shops in a rid of racing in their shops? it was reported in the Racing Post particular locality comes up, along Doubtful. But scale down or that Boylesports are interested in with cultivating good relationships deemphasise coverage? Maybe. purchasing all 360 (or thereabouts) between local councils and locally BETFRED’S EXCLUSIVITY to run the shops likely to be sold off as a owned and operated betting tote ends on July 12, 2018. From condition of the Ladbrokes – Coral shops. then, anyone can set up a pool merger. The Competition and APRIL 1, 2017 still appears to be betting operation with permission Markets Authority approved the the target date for the levy from the Gambling Commission. merger subject to around 350 to replacement and/or reform, but That date will be here before you 400 shops being unloaded first. there seems to be a decided lack know it, and racing is already Boylesports has stated their of activity on that front. exploring its options as regards intention to buy all the available operating its own tote service. The shops. Even if a levy replacement spells the end of the BHA’s idea of a racing operated tote has Wouldn’t it be better if at Authorised Betting Partner policy, already been proposed, with least some of those shops were the ramifications are still likely to betting shops and online offered to small independent reverberate for some time. bookmakers seen as key players in chains or individual operators? Bookmakers are turning to other providing the distribution. Exotic This very idea was suggested by sports, such as darts, snooker and wagers are seen as instrumental to Star Sports supremo Ben Keith in football, for sponsorship deals. To any tote success, with the concept his blog post at the end of May. pile on the clichés, racing just of a big win for a small outlay likely Cities and towns are might find it has not only shot to appeal to casual punters and continually discussing how to itself in the foot and is missing the customers more used to playing revive their high streets and how boat, but they may see their the lottery. to encourage more small local sponsorship opportunities sail It would need most, if not independent businesses to fill their away over the horizon and never all, racecourses and a large vacant shop fronts. Why shouldn’t come back. segment of the betting industry to this include independent ACCORDING TO Bill Barber’s cooperate to make it a success. bookmakers? column in the Racing Post back on Consolidation will be vital in order So many times we’ve gone May 19, betting shop picture rights to provide enough liquidity to into small independent betting payments have become the largest make the operation viable and shops and found a real community single income source for British competitive, and also to share the atmosphere, with staff who know racing from the betting industry. technology and implementation their customers well and look after The government has said it would costs. The involvement of and them, to the point of enquiring take media rights payments into costs to independent operators when they don’t see them in the consideration when setting the must also be taken into shop on a regular basis, or even rate for the proposed levy consideration. visiting them if they’re in hospital. replacement. Costs to bookmakers continue to escalate, so could It’s this social aspect that Mary Pitt http://bos.mannybernstein.co.uk BOS Magazine - October 2016 Page 3 Eden Bookmakers’ Fleet of Shops by Chris Pitt THERE’S A ‘to do’ list on the back of roughly 80 per cent ‘regulars’, wall of the counter at Eden rather than passing trade. Competi- Bookmakers’ shop in Fleet. It tion within the town comes from a encompasses all the small but vital nearby Coral shop and a Betfred jobs that need to be done before further along the high street. opening for business, such as making Concessions offered include sure betting slips and pens are out, treble the odds Lucky 15s, double putting up newspapers, and cleaning result, guaranteed odds and FOBT machine screens each rounding up forecasts and tricasts. morning. “We do a lot, we always John Eden would have compete,” says Mark of their offers. recognised the first two of those “Our opening hours vary from shop when establishing the firm in 1969, to shop. The earliest we open but he’d have been scratching his anywhere is nine and the latest we head over the third item. “What’s a close is nine-thirty. We’re shut on FOBT?” he may have queried. Mark Eden Sunday evenings.” Sadly, John passed away in Blockbuster Video shop. Late last year Eden 1993, several years before FOBTs Mark, 52, deals with the Bookmakers signed a four-year made their betting shop debut. The accounts while Chris, 47, handles the agreement with SG Gaming as its business is now run by his sons Mark staffing side. The brothers came into sole machine provider, replacing and Chris Eden. Their mother Carole, the business via widely differing Eden’s previous supplier. Mark has John’s widow, the matriarch of the routes. nothing but praise for their new organisation, is now retired but When Mark left school he supplier, commenting that he’s been remains a partner in the business. served an apprenticeship as a test “massively pleased” with the John Eden worked for technician with electronics firm arrangement. accountants Price Waterhouse Racal. Having spent six weeks “SG Gaming had all the staff before leaving and joining the working in the factory, he decided it in, trained us on the machines, and William Hill organisation. When Hills wasn’t for him and went into the we’ve had loads of promotions. The gave him a ‘take it or leave it’ choice family’s betting shop business. service is good and you can rely on of travelling around the country Chris’s apprenticeship was of them,” he says. opening new shops; he opted to a very different type. He went to the Eden are equally enthusiastic leave it. After a short spell in British Racing School and joined Paul members of the Bookmakers supermarket cleaning he acquired a Kelleway’s Newmarket stable with Technology Consortium. “It’s well shop owned by independent aspirations of becoming a jockey but worth it,” affirms Mark. “It saves you bookmaker York’s in Sandhurst. He weight got the better of him. He money – it’s worth the amount of eventually obtained a second shop, then spent a year in Australia, came money you save just on football in the Hampshire village of Hartley back and joined the family firm. coupons alone – and the actual Wintney, some five miles to the Chris’s horseracing ambitions system is better, cheaper and more west of Fleet. had been fuelled by their elder up-to-date.” At the time of John’s death, brother Grant Eden, now 56, who They are, however, keeping a Eden Bookmakers comprised just was formerly a trainer in Newmarket watching brief with regard to the those two premises but there has but suffered serious injuries in a car BTC’s recent ground-breaking media been a gradual expansion over the crash that kept him out of the sport rights deal with The Racing years to the point where their for a few years.