Tuesday Notes

Not too much happening, or catching my eye recently. However a couple of items....

The Woodbine Pick 6 (much to the chagrin of the WEG management crew I assume) was hit for the second week in a row. Only $52,000 was bet into it, and one happy punter walked away with $153,000. This is turning out to be one of the better bets for gamblers. These things do take time, and considerable effort. We'll see what some carryovers will do, but they better get some soon or one would think this new bet will be deep-sixed.

Still nothing for harness patrons. Trot contacted WEG about some sort of parallel harness bet, but no dice.

It appears there might have been a hoax news story published across the pond recently that had to be retracted. This link housed a story of a UK bettor who was said to have won 20M GBP over the past while, with some wild claims. For example, it was said he won a million or more GBP on a single race. This prompted a response from betfair to squelch this story.

We have been contacted by several customers in relation to an article in Sunday’s News of the World. We would like to make it clear that Betfair was not asked to comment on, or validate any aspect of, the article ahead of publication.

Although we cannot comment on the activities of any specific customer, some facts which may be relevant to some of the claims made in the article include:

the biggest winner in the relevant Britain’s Got Talent market (Susan Boyle winner - Yes/No) won less than £3,000.

No Betfair customer won £1.5 million or anything even vaguely approaching that amount betting on the Champion Hurdle.

No Betfair customer won £500,000 or anything even vaguely approaching that amount laying Monsieur Chevalier at Royal Ascot

The figures shown in the account statement screenshot in the News Of the World do not reconcile to any Betfair account.

The monies present in a Betfair account are obviously no indicator of the sums won or lost on the account.

We would encourage customers to be wary of the claims of anyone purporting to have a profitable system or strategy.

We would encourage customers to retain a healthy degree of scepticism toward any claims made in the press which are not validated by Betfair.

Kudos to that company's customer service/management team.

More cries for takeouts to be reduced, this time from Cary Fotias, long time horseplayer and author, and board member of the Horseplayers Association of North America:

In a country that has always believed in free markets, it is curious that racing has been so mismanaged by politicians and regulators that it has never had the chance to find where supply meets demand to maximize profits.

Fotias also commented on a recent Horseplayer piece which was harness related. Recently there was a think-tank at the Meadowlands filled with various insiders but no horseplayers. This sparked some interest with the piece linked from all major websites. A little bird told me that Mike Tanner of the USTA contacted one of the members and promised that an invitation will be sent to make sure a horseplayer is on their next panel. ESPN's Bill Finley also comments, giving his props to the harness folks at the meeting.