Bookmakers closing accounts

[ONEDUNME]

In 18 months time I'm expecting VC and others to be posting massive losses on previous years and blaming it on loss of market share.

They are closing accounts for people for just piddly amounts of profit. Just becasue a guy makes a profit over three months it doesn't mean he's going to make a profit over six months or a year or two years.

I might be naive but I always think that if you get your prices right and balance the books, then the more turnover you get, the more cash you make as a bookie.

This latest account closing shite is going to be the biggest change to gambling since the introduction of the internet and betting exchanges as regular gamblers seek to find someone to accomodate them.

What happens next?

[Seen]

I'm not too fussed about it to be honest as 99% of my betting is with betfair, but it kinda annoyed me that they refused to give me a reason (we all know the reason and we also know why they wouldn't say why).

I have no idea what my profit/loss is with them or even what the last bet I had was, because I can't even log in to my account to find out. The fact that my account has been closed almost certainly means I was in profit, but I'll be amazed if it's more than a hundred quid.

Pathetic.

[beamer]

Closing accounts has been going on for as long as I can remember. The old reason used to be "trading patterns" on the account. One method of getting the decision reversed in the past, would be to offer a certain amount of SP business on a regular basis. Bookies hate punters cherry picking the best prices, but may reconsider if you give them a mix of sp/early prices/multiples,etc. It's always wise to spread your bets as much as possible. The exchanges accelerated the problem as traders were convinced that anyone taking the top price was an arber and they could not trade it back.

Not only are they closing non viable accounts, but the bookies are now identifying losing accounts and contacting them with incentives. I don't have a problem with general promotions, but promotions aimed at a certain sector of their market seems unethical to me.

It seems to me that the the ones with the heavy TV marketing are the shit houses when it comes to taking a bet.


beamer

[beamer]

.

The fact that my account has been closed almost certainly means I was in profit,

I don't think it always comes down to profitable accounts Seen, more a case of the style/ frequency of betting. I've had losing accounts closed simply on trading patterns.
I honestly think a winning accounts based on SP bets would never get knocked back.

A bookie I knew from Stockport years ago used to throw the analogy of a shopper going to 12 supermarkets in one morning cherry picking the best offers, effectively taking the loss leaders, which left the supermarket with no profit. Supermarkets generally get a mix of profit margins in their trollies, which is what the bookies ideally want.

I'd be interested to know how the recent Barney Curley winning acca actually got placed without any alarm bells and whether they threw in some losers in the early stages, to actually get the bet on.

Since I've got back off holiday Betfair liquidity seems to be poor, especially the IR markets, so much so that Betdaq look to be matching on some markets.

beamer

[Seen]

Since I've got back off holiday Betfair liquidity seems to be poor, especially the IR markets, so much so that Betdaq look to be matching on some markets.

The in-running markets on BF have definitely suffered of late because of the ridiculous deliberate time delay on ATR.

A correction to my earlier post - I've looked through my bank statements for VC bets and I won £1,100 from a £300 bet back in December (which I placed for someone else) which I'd forgotten about. Since then I've had a handful of bets ranging between £5 and £30 (mostly losers).

The £300 bet was not an arb or a snidey ew bet, it wasn't even on horse racing or anything where inside info could be used - so my profits were from a single bet.

They obviously have done a sweep and closed a host of accounts which were in profit. Had they admitted this then I might have had a bit more respect for them.

[beamer]

The in-running markets on BF have definitely suffered of late because of the ridiculous deliberate time delay on ATR.

Obviously a reason Seen, but I think the 60% premium charge is a bigger factor. I simply think the big time layers have packed their bags and moved to Betdaq, although the IR is still poor.

The horse racing markets are getting closer between the two companies and was surprised to see Betdaq trading double on the Bridgestone golf (4 million on Saturday morning).

Forgot to book my fooking Betfair holiday which is another joke of an idea.

beamer

[hotspur]

I think what beamer says may explain my experience.
AT the end of last season I needed a team to be relegated in order to get an antepost acca up.
So for 3 weeks I was betting on them to stay up.
On the last day of the season I bet £3000 with victor chandler on this team winning their game(they were best price).
Then I was busy doing a multiple entry on the premier 10(littlewoods) and so when I decided to have some more on that result,I phoned a friend to bet another 2k on the result.
The upshot was:
the team won,my acca went down.....and my friend got banned....even though he only bets small amounts usually...
it still brings a smile to my face..

[ONEDUNME]

Originally Posted by hotspur

the team won,my acca went down.....and my friend got banned....even though he only bets small amounts usually...
it still brings a smile to my face..

Great friend you are eh?

[hotspur]

fair comment but,of course if he should need to place a bet with vic then,at the moment,I still have an account with them....also,naturally I pay him for his help(well most years!)

[beamer]

Great friend you are eh?

I can top that. Around 20 years ago I had a mate who used to place bets for me, who never gambled himself.

He had an inland revenue investigation and they queried the cash going in and out of the account. His excuse that he was betting on my behalf wasn't accepted and hegor stung with am extra tax demand.

beamer

[hotspur]

you gotta be kidding!!??

presumably that was because in those days it was all cash bets ...and you threw away the losing slips!?

are you still friends?

[beamer]

We are still friends and he has great pleasure reminding me about it. They were credit accounts with the firms I was resticted. The revenue would not believe the "story", even though I had cheques made out to me from him.

We sorted it out although determining what it cost him was difficult, as he would never had avoided the investigation and he knew he'd get stung anyway.

beamer