rp sunday

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Racing Post Sunday, June 20, 2021

GRAPHIC: STEFAN SEARLE

Kick back with your relaxing weekend read

‘I HAD TO LEARN ONLINE BASICS JUST TO BET’ – HOW THE PANDEMIC CHANGED PUNTING The Big Read Lewis Porteous talks to players and layers about a time of rapid change

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HE British and Irish racing industries breathed a huge sigh of relief last June as racing finally resumed after breaks of more than two months. But there was most definitely something still missing – and it’s been missing for most of the subsequent year.

Winners returned to silence and racecourses lost their identity as fans and punters were forced to watch the action from home. We couldn’t even nip down the betting shop to soak up a bit of atmosphere as the shutters stayed down and screens remained blank for months on end.

For many, the absence of betting shops and racecourses forced a seismic change in their habits. And people told to take refuge at home also had lots of free time on their hands to explore more betting options.

This is the story of how the pandemic changed punting – perhaps for good.

Betting shop punters forced to adapt

Just as people who had done the same traditional weekly shop for decades before popping into the bank to pay in their cheques were suddenly forced to adapt during the pandemic, betting shop punters who had

resisted the online marketplace were forced to concede if they wanted to continue punting.

Charlie Bracken, a building contractor from Bletchley and a daily punter, had no choice but to open an online betting account for the first time.

“Online betting never appealed to me,” he says. “It’s just not my cup of tea. I’m 68 and my idea of putting a bet on is going down to the bookies, where there’s a bit of life going on.

In lockdown I got my wife to teach me the basics of how to get on there and put a bet on.

I still wouldn’t say I’ve got to grips with it Continues page 16

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Sunday, June 20, 2021 racingpost.com

From page 15

but I’ve learned the basics and get the bets on.”

Neil Burns, a London office worker suddenly working remotely in Brighton, found himself in a similar position to Bracken when lockdown began but got to grips with online betting so quickly he soon found himself having to scale back his punting.

“I’d never had a bet online because I love cash; I want to see something tangible when I win. When I opened an online account, my first winner was Motakhayyel at 16-1 in the first race at Royal Ascot and my first thought was ‘I wish that had been a cash bet’.

“As time went on I found the main difference is that I used to have to put on all my bets for the day in the shop, whereas online it can be more of a spur-of-the-moment thing, which isn’t good. My account was in profit but when I looked at my history I was horrified by how much I’d turned over – I had no idea I’d bet that much and it opened my eyes as they were mind-boggling figures. But I’ve been more careful since then.”

According to Ladbrokes Coral PR director Simon Clare, the migration to online was

‘SINCE BETTING SHOPS REOPENED THEY SEEM MUCH MORE WILLING TO TAKE BIGGER BETS THAN THEY WERE PRE-PANDEMIC’ particularly evident during the spring when more punters like Bracken and Burns were unable to face the prospect of a Cheltenham Festival without a bet.

“There were certainly plenty of people who were resistant to betting online because they might like betting in a shop, who faced with the fact that they couldn’t have their Cheltenham Festival bets because shops were shut, did open accounts online and bet that way,” he says.

This is reflected in a surge in online business during March and April. Flutter, the parent company of Paddy Power, Betfair and Sky Bet, reported online revenue growth of 42 per cent in the first quarter of this year, with customer acquisition in the UK and Ireland up 59 per cent during Cheltenham alone.

Of course, the move from retail to online is nothing new. According to data from the Gambling Commission, responsible for regulating gambling and supervising gaming law in Britain, online or remote betting had already seen significant growth over the previous five years. From just under £23 billion for the financial year ending March 2016, the turnover from remote betting in Britain, excluding casino and bingo, was £26.6 billion for the year ending March 2020, with turnover of £9.1 billion on racing alone.

In contrast, the number of shops in Britain has dropped every year since reaching 9,111 in 2014, while over-the-counter turnover on all betting opportunities of £7.6 billion from April 2019 to March 2020 marked a ten per cent yearon-year fall.

However, this trend was hugely accelerated by the pandemic. Entain, the parent company of Ladbrokes and Coral, reported that online Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation) rose by 50 per cent to £803.5m in 2020, reflecting the shift to online during the pandemic as well as good sports margins, whereas its retail division was “significantly impacted” by Covid-19, with Ebitda for the year down 64 per cent at £98.3m.

There has also been a steep fall in the number of betting shops in Britain, which stood at 6,735

Changing times: main picture, Motakhayyel wins the first race of behind-closed-doors Royal Ascot last year; inset from bottom left, an empty betting ring at Wincanton; a drone flying above Brighton racecourse last month; the buzz starts to return at Redcar on May bank holiday Monday; Covid precautions in a betting shop

in September last year, a 12.3 per cent decrease from just six months earlier.

But what are punters like Bracken and Burns doing now that both retail and online options are available to them again?

“Now that I’m online I’ll probably do a bit of both,” says Bracken. “I’m able to go on the laptop in the evening, get the decs and the price is there beside the horse. If I want to bet I can do it online but the business I’m in you’re always talking to the lads and hear what they’re betting on, and we can still go down to the shop for a bet.”

For Burns, it will be the same mix-and-match approach but one governed by his love of a big cash payout.

“Tuesday was my first day back in a betting shop because of Royal Ascot – my bets were a bit bigger than usual and I wanted to feel the buzz. I think I’ll always bet in cash when I’m at the races or there are big meetingss, b but I’ll do my day-to-day betting onlin ne and I’ve also discovered I like inplay betting on football and golf.

I think I’ve got the best of both worlds now.”

A fresh generation of punters

One glimmer of hope for those hoping betting shops can rally is that the digital growth might not have entirely been customers migrating grating from retail but new customers altogether, with the pandemic fuelling a fresh generation of punters.

As Star Sports owner Ben Keith, who reports online bet numbers to be down a third since restrictions on betting shops were further eased on May 17, puts it: “Of course the online will go down now that the shops are open again but

how many new punters did the online find and create during the pandemic?”

Clare (below) adds: “What betting operators are clearly hoping for, especially those who run b i sh hops, is that there will have been betting a net increase [in customers]. That uld mean retail returns to 90 per cou cent rather than 100 per cent but we’re 20 per cent up on digital, w or retail goes back to 100 per cent and there’s an uptick in digital. In that regard, it’s too early to tell but what we are e seeeing is a really encouraging urn to retail business levels, to retu the point where we’re really hopeful of getting back to a degree of normality and returning to levels not far off where we were before.”

Clare puts that down to the fact that “sometimes you forget why you like something until it’s taken away”, adding: “Betting shops are still a social place and a community hub where you actually interact with people rather than betting on your own at home. That’s something

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Racing Post Sunday, June 20, 2021

EDWARD WHITAKER (RACINGPOST.COM/PHOTOS)

Remote betting turnover* £30b

*excludes casino and bingo

Turnover

£27.5b £25b £22.5b £20b

15 r 20 016 p A r2 Ma

17 r 20 018 p A r2 Ma

16 r 20 017 p A r2 Ma

18 r 20 019 p A r2 Ma

19 r 20 020 p A r2 Ma

Over-the-counter turnover in British betting shops 9,500

*figures from April-March each year **all data from the Gambling Commission

Turnover (£m)

9,000

8,500

8,000

7,500

2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18 2018-19 2019-20

Total betting shops in Britain 9,500

*all data from the Gambling Commission

9,128

8,800 8,100 7,400 6,735

6,700 6,000

March

2011

we’ve seen since mid-April. All the anecdotal evidence from our shop managers is that all the old faces are returning with stories to tell.”

That certainly rings true for Paula Heard, a Ladbrokes shop manager in Stevenage, who reports her regulars were itching to get back.

“A lot of my regular customers came straight back and it’s building each week,” she says. “A lot of them are older gentlemen and they like the feel of being in a shop and meeting up with their friends.

“Since May 17 we’ve been able to put a couple of chairs out for them and, with the restriction on how long they can stay in the shop being lifted, it feels more like it was before the pandemic. Coming to the shop is their regular thing and something they do every day and enjoy.”

The experience of betting online during the pandemic left one successful punter, who wished to remain anonymous, feeling particularly cold and his appreciation for betting shops has never been higher.

“It’s no fun online, you’re just pressing buttons,” says the 54-year-old. “There’s no

‘ONCE BETTING SHOP PUNTERS START TO BECOME ONLINE PUNTERS, I DON’T SEE WHY THEY’D WANT TO RUSH BACK’ bigger thrill for a punter than to back a 10-1 winner and to watch the cashier count out that money on to your hand. To walk away with that money, put it in your pocket and to go home and count it out again yourself, you feel like you’ve really achieved something and you’ve got more money than you had that morning.

When money is just flowing between accounts, it’s not real; it’s just like Monopoly money.

March

2012

March

2013

March

2014

March

2015

“I’ve also found since betting shops have reopened they seem much more willing to take bigger bets than they were pre-pandemic, which is great for people like me.”

Keith (right) doesn’t see the declining number of shops in recent years as evidence of waning demand either and is more than hopeful that betting shops can bounce back.

“It’s a terrible thing to say but the recession really cleared away what needed to be cleared away a few years ago,” he says. “There were a lot o of betting shops in this country wh here the seating was old and damaged, d the toilets were disgusting and the staff weren’t interested – they needed and deserved to close.

At the end of the day, if you give a good service a punter will play with you – it’s not all about price.

“The action at our shop in Preston is unbelievable. In Mayfair, too, people come to get on. You’d be quite surprised about the

March

2016

March

2017

March

2018

March

2019

March

2020

Sept

2020

action that we see in our shops. Punters do go in betting shops if you lay them and don’t keep them hanging around for 20 minutes at the counter to have £200 on the football.”

N ll punters will be coming back to Not all the saame degree, though, if at all. ofessional gambler Neil Channing Pro has always been willing to bet in shops when it suited him but can’t s see himself doing it as often in the future.

“I used to think I quite liked going shopping and seeing the g sttuff and picking the fruit I wanted, butt when the pandemic came I thougght I’m going to start doing my shopping online and now I would never go back to the supermarket – who wants to queue up and waste time?

“Once betting shop punters start to become online punters, I don’t really see why they’d want to rush back to the betting shops.

Personally, I’m just focusing on wherever it’s easiest to get on and at the moment Continues page 18

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Sunday, June 20, 2021 racingpost.com

Remote betting turnover by sport From page 17

I don’t really need to do the betting shops.”

Richard Flint, a non-executive director at betting giant Flutter Entertainment and the former Sky Bet chief executive, is thinking along similar lines: “There’s a social component to visiting a betting shop and some people will like to do it in cash, but I think for a significant proportion of those people who have shifted to online, the convenience and the greater value will lead them to stay there.”

July – September 2019 1% 2% 2% 3% 9%

10%

37%

Total £6.824b

35%

Not just new punters – but racing punters

On-course conundrum

While betting shops closed for long periods during the pandemic, on-course bookmakers had it even worse. Bar one brief period late in 2020, they went around 15 months without being able to take a bet.

However, for everyday punters that didn’t

Racing

£2.708b

£2.436b

Football

£2.475b

July – September 2020

£627m

Tennis

3% 1% 2% £349m 2%

£203m

Cricket

£137m

£170m

Virtual

2m £212m

£167m Greyhounds

5%

13%

39%

Total £7.027b

35%

3m £163

£65m

Golf

8m £88

£654m

Others

3m £893

On-course turnover turnover £300m £270m

Turnover

Amid plenty of doom and gloom, there was the odd bit of good news for racing during the pandemic. Most notably, the sport managed to return on the first day possible in Britain – June 1 – and just a week later in Ireland, after which it benefited from enhanced coverage on ITV, notably at weekends.

Perhaps fuelled by this good work, there is evidence that a good proportion of the potential new punters referenced by Clare and Keith might specifically be racing punters as the major bookmakers reported particularly strong online results for their racing division following the resumption, with new followers drawn to the sport.

According to Gambling Commission statistics, of the £7 billion generated in online turnover on traditional and virtual sports between the start of July and the end of September last year, live racing accounted for the greatest share at £2.7 billion, ahead of football with £2.5 billion. This marked a slight increase in racing’s share of the market compared to the same three-month period in 2019, even though 2020 saw more football played at this time due to the late resumption of the Premier League and shorter break between seasons.

Racing’s popularity was further reflected in the Levy Board’s announcement last month that the sport’s central funding system is expected to have yielded £80 million in the 12 months to the end of March.

Taking into account that last year racing did not take place in April and May, the Grand National was cancelled and betting shops closed or were operating under restrictions, that is a pretty remarkable figure. The levy yield two years ago was barely any bigger at £83m off the back of a full, uninterrupted 12 months, albeit that figure was unusually low, caused largely by Cheltenham Festival offers.

“Betting activity on racing was very strong from June 1, 2020 onwards,” says Naomi Totten, senior corporate communications manager at Flutter. “The situation facing the sport provided a powerful opportunity for racing stakeholders to collaborate with betting operators on decisions around fixtures and TV coverage like never before, the success of which gave an insight into what we can achieve together. We also saw an increase in ITV coverage, particularly on Sundays, which really helped to open racing up to a new audience.”

Clare agrees, adding: “When racing returned in June the BHA put on a really efficient programme of two meetings in the afternoon and two in the evening of ten-race cards.

Straight away it hit the mark and performed really well, most notably around the big events and the live Saturdays.

“The TV audience of racing is going to be made up of a significant number who are having a bet on the racing. What’s important is not to go back to the previous ways of working and return to the same old programme. We’ve had to deal with so much change and challenges, and you want to take some of the more positive learning from that.”

£2.501b

£240m

‘YOU SEE A BET BUT THERE IS NO OUTLET TO GET THAT BET ON’

IF MANY people missed their trips to the betting shops during the pandemic, the closure of retail even proved frustrating for one professional punter who never visits them himself. Mark Holder will use any means he can to get an edge and shops form part of his punting strategy, one he badly missed during lockdown.

“The betting shops being closed hurt,” he says. “There are bets that I want to get on that I will only get on in betting shops through the right people. I’m talking each-ways, doubles, trebles and accumulators where I know that the place odds are massively in my favour.

“There was none of that and that might have had something to do with my lack of enthusiasm last winter because all of a sudden you’re not having those bets. You see an opportunity to have that bet but there is no outlet to get that bet on and that’s really frustrating.”

£210m £180m £150m

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have anything like the same impact as shop closures. While the betting ring has long been an essential part of the raceday experience for many, it is rarely a place where serious punters are found these days.

Even those who like to get an edge by being on course to see the horses at close quarters report doing their betting via mobile devices rather than the ring, while the likes of professional gambler Mark Holder, who hasn’t been a regular on course since 2005, and Channing, who hasn’t set foot on a racecourse in ten years, were lost to the ring a long time ago.

This is reflected in long-term trends regarding annual betting turnover on the racecourse, which crept towards £300m at the start of the last decade but had slumped to £190m from April 2019 to March 2020.

There is now some optimism that the pandemic might spark a revival, with John Hooper (pictured), ed) who bought the 106 remaining racecourse pitches belonging to Ladbrokes and Coral last year, saying: “I’m fairly positive about people coming back racing, especially punters as such,” he says.

“I see it as an opportunity. I think the whole population wants to get out of the house, so I can see there being a boom in any kind of leisure activity.”

Hooper’s positivity isn’t shared by everyone, though, and Keith says the on-course market is the part of the betting industry that concerns him the most.

“I’m worried about on-course because people don’t even like carrying cash now because it’s all slippery and sticks together, which is an annoyance,” he says. “If it’s a full house at Glorious Goodwood, that could end up being Cheltenham-esque. That’s when we’ll see what it’s like in the ring.”

All change for in-running heavyweights

Prior to the pandemic, there had at least been one regular group of punters on the track – but

even that might have been finished off now.

For some considerable time up to last March, in-running punters had taken up residency in hospitality boxes at courses across Britain. At a significant cost, well into three figures per punter per meeting in some cases, they benefited from quicker on-course pictures, gaining an edge over those betting in running remotely where the television pictures are slower.

However, one respected punter, once a regular in-running player at the course but who w wishes to remain nonymous, anticipates far fewer an returning to the track this year, the t pandemic having changed their habits for good.

“The drone pictures are so accessible now and most of the guys have reached the g onclusion that, although the co picttures are clearer in the boxes, rather stay at home and they would w play five, six or seven meetings on a day, l fi rather than jumping in the car and driving two hours to Wolverhampton for seven races,” he says.

“It might have happened anyway because of the improvement in drone technology and cameras. The drone pictures seem to be cheaper now and, compared to a box at the track, they’re probably good value for money.”

There is evidence that the closure of racecourses also affected favourite backers and each-way punters as well as in-running players.

Without on-course bookmakers, the starting prices of runners in Britain had to be determined using off-course prices, which will now continue to have the greatest influence on SPs despite the return of on-course bookmakers.

Analysis by the Horseracing Bettors Forum (HBF) comparing the Betfair SP with the offcourse and on-course SPs for the period between January 2017 and January 2021, excluding July and August each year, has shown that the new system is “slightly worse” for punters backing horses at 5-4 or shorter and

“markedly worse” between odds of 4-1 and 15-2, particularly in terms of each-way betting.

HBF member Martin Hughes told the Racing Post: “Bookmakers have been more prepared to push out bigger-priced horses to longer odds, which means horses that may have had an SP of 66-1 are returning at 100-1, and that’s beneficial for people who like to back outsiders, but it’s got a lot tighter for those at the top.”

Which of the changes will be permanent?

Those hoping the days of bustling betting shops and vibrant betting rings would return had appeared to be clinging to false hope for some time even before the pandemic.

Across all industries, Covid has only accelerated the migration to online and that certainly appears to be the case where betting is concerned. There remains some optimism for the future among those involved both on- and off-course but the move to remote gambling is surely one over which they have little control.

Other changes driven by the pandemic are unlikely to be reversed, including for in-running punters, who appear to have little incentive to return to the course having adapted their methods over the past year.

However, the legacy of the pandemic does not have to be negative for racing and it is within the sport’s power to make sure that the lessons of the past year drive permanent and positive change. For example, racing appeared to attract a fresh audience and new punters during shutdown, drawn to the sport through enhanced TV coverage and smarter race planning. Keeping them on board is now key.

The return of days like Super Saturday, where too much racing is shoehorned into one day, doesn’t bode well in this respect, but it’s not too late for race planners and racecourses to recognise the benefits of a more holistic approach to fixture planning.

The pandemic forced racing to think on its feet and a fresh approach clearly appealed to spectators and punters alike. Now is the time to ensure we keep them entertained and cast the net even wider to attract the next generation.