h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

...a bookmaker at Fratton Park.

So, we take a float with us. It's not much, just enough to give change really.

We take a few thousand quid around the ground.

This is usually enough to pay most bets that come up for payment on a match day.

Not today.

Taylor first to score = 16/1
Portsmouth to win 2-1 = 25/1
Scorecast (both above)= 225/1

When virtually every single bet wins, the following happens:
A) Goodbye takings
B) Goodbye float
C) Hello huge pile of paperwork. (We eventually finished the admin stuff so that people can get paid out at 21:10, some two hours after we got back.)
D) Losses on the day of near-enough £40,000

Of course everyone wants to be paid out, but there is no way any sane person would carry £40,000 to a football match, so we run out of cash. Of course, certain people stand around demanding cash until they are removed by stewards. If that person was you, go to a shop, you ******, because you cannot collect what we do not have. Argh..

My brain hurts, I am going to bed....

Bad luck. I was only thinking this morning (in this order)

(a) how South Africa lost to Bangladesh, in terms of Thomas Gilfillan's theory.

(b) how Australia's unlikely run of losses against England and New Zealand in the CB and Chappel-Hadlee Series probably lengthened the odds of them winning the World Cup considerably.

(c) how Australia would have been an almost unbackable favourites before the tournament without those losses.

(d) how bookies don't like it when the favourite wins, presumably because there is a minimum payout.

As such it seems strange that you lose out when an outsider comes in.

I suppose the issue here is that you had three fairly unlikely events come in all of which were backed to the extent that your on-site liability exceeded your liquidity.

As I say, bad luck. But bookmakers ain't poor are they?

I can't really speak for the company as a whole, but as I work within the ground itself, and in shops in the local area, the betting does not reflect national averages.

Locally, support for Portsmouth FC is particularly strong. Support for another football team just along the coast, is non-existant, atleast in public. (Actually, I know of three southampton fans in Portsmouth, but they keep it quiet when out in public...)

In the ground, we have six betting points; North Lower (the busiest, and unfortunately for me, my permanent assignment); North Upper, South Upper, Mandaric Suite, the Portocabin (covers the Mratton end), and the executive suites. This gives us 85-90% coverage of the home fans, and 0% coverage of the away fans, who are all confined to the Milton end.

Hence, we are dealing with people who are probably there wanting Portsmouth FC to win, and therefore when they do, we are likely to get clobbered with a large payout.

One plus, I have a plastic card in my wallet which has a Portsmouth FC badge on it, and the words Portsmouth FC - STAFF written on it in large letters. This has pretty much the same effect on fans as a knowing where your towel is, in that they immediately assume that you are on first name terms with the entire team, can hand out free tickets if the whim takes you, and that you are on the same sort of salary as Nwakwo Kanu.
Actually, it is designed to get me past the stewards on match days, not that I need it, because I always make sure I get there early enough to take their bets before they have to be on duty somewhere, so they all know me anyway.

Blasted spellcheckers. It didn't like fratton and milton, so I capitalised them... It didn't complain about Milton after that, nor Mratton. Zark.

You mentioned "(d) how bookies don't like it when the favourite wins, presumably because there is a minimum payout."...

Over in the UK, we do not have minimum payouts, except on the tote, which applies only to horse racing. A number of countries have tote bets for everything, and there are minimum payouts. In the UK tote, the minimum is 1.10, meaning anything shorter than 1/10 is instantly worth backing on the tote, because the tote pays exactly 1/10.

This does not apply to cricket matches. At one stage we were 1/250 on the Australians against South Africa. I think that was generous.

If you had placed a pound at 1/250, you would have won 1.004, which after rounding is 1.00, so you get your money back. Granted, had you bet ten pounds, you would have got 10.04 back, making a huge, gargantuan, awesome profit of 4p. Nah. Don't bother.

Besides, in a properly balanced book, people may win, but the bookmaker always wins.