Equinties - the punters slow death

Gm Equinauts

A viral tweet caught our attention this weekend:

As a punter reading it, it’s enough to make your blood boil but why is this happening? Let’s break it down:

Effectively, a fairly small-time winning punter is being forced to meet a plethora of unreasonable demands in order to simply withdraw winnings from a bet(s) which, at the time, the bookmaker in question were more than happy to lay.

Laying a bet forms a contract between customer and bookmaker and, assuming the customer has conformed to (the often expansive) terms of the bookmaker, they actually are legally obliged to pay out.

So, how are they are able to make such a vast, inflexible and excessive list of demands from the customer?

Well, they’re just taking the p*ss, using the AML/KYC obligations imposed on them by the UK gambling regulators to create this absurd and unnecessary friction.

Now, let’s be clear. KYC (know your customer) and compliance are important. Bookmakers have a legal duty to know their customer otherwise can face big fines (in 2020, non-compliant companies were charged £32 billion in fines. Ouch) but why wasn’t this KYC done before taking the customers bets? William Hill are effectively in breach of their own contract here, however we’re quite sure they’ll have some crap clause in their terms which will negate them of any liability in this case. Just for clarity - we are not lawyers, we are not bookmakers , we are merely punters with a limited knowledge of customer rights.

Now, let’s get back to the specific case in question. Morally, it’s wrong and they seem to be conflating twoo requirements - KYC/AML and affordability checks. The customer in this case really should only have to provide two forms of ID as part of basic KYC requirements. They certainly shouldn’t have to be sending in 6 months of bank statements. That seems to be an absurd abuse of power.

Sadly, there isn’t much the customer can do if pursuing them legally isn’t an option.

However there is a really simple solution to the problem - don’t use them.

There are a number of other bookmakers who are more than happy to pay out, a case in point being our intern getting paid out £11k within hours of clicking that beautiful ‘withdraw' button last week. The bookmaker was Betfred. Thank you, Betfred.

Let us be clear - we understand that customers have a duty to cooperate with bookmakers on a regulatory standpoint but we, the writers behind this newsletter, are becoming more and more disgruntled with British bookmakers over-exercising the passing down of regulatory requirements, to the extent where sports betting successfully is now almost impossible to execute.

And that’s all without the prevalent issue of the majority of bookmakers not wanting to take a good bet anymore. You should have seen how difficult it was for us to get money down on one horse yesterday!

The black market and overseas bookmakers are becoming more and more appealing for those unable to get to a racecourse and have a physical bet.

We have so many grievances at the moment. The bookmakers need to wake up.

The bookmakers are the problem. Need to do KYC? Get it done early - not when the customer wants to withdraw. Treat customers fairly. Require proof of funds whether it’s for AML or affordability? Fine, a bank statement will do - NOT 6 months of personal banking history. That’s an abuse of power.

If by making it too difficult for good punters (there are few of them), it will disenfranchise those players from the sport and as such will have a big, long-term negative impact on future participation.

The bookmakers make more than enough to produce a good bottom line whilst providing the rare breed of successful punter a market to enjoy themselves keeping everyone happy and more importantly, keeping horseracing alive.

But they’re not doing it, they’re slowly and single-handedly killing the sport by killing the punter.

BOOKMAKERS - WAKE TF UP!

We had to keep the above relatively brief as we could talk about it all day backed up by real life scenarios of the the difficulties of betting and examples of the extent we have to go to to place bets.

We are punters and we are NOT happy.

Rant over, let’s dive in.

HEADLINE ROUNDUP

LIGHT IN THE TUNNEL

Supplemented, wrong ground, new trip, wrong side of the course, yet SHADOW OF LIGHT defied all of this to win the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes.

Amazingly, he drifted a little before the off and ANCIENT TRUTH, who looked like a winner with one furlong to go, was backed into an SP of 13/8, but SHADOW OF LIGHTS performance down the outside of the track was visually very impressive.

Few horses have done the Middle Park to Dewhurst double, so he deserves a good deal of credit for that.

Obviously, when a horse wins the Dewhurst, it’s easy to start talking about the Guineas – a race he is 6/1 for – but will that be his target? Remember what Charlie Appleby said after the Middle Park about the Commonwealth Cup?

Well, as Appleby said after the Dewhurst: “Those who don't change their minds are the ones who get stuck in a rut. You have to be open-minded in this game.”

Time and time again, horses have gone to the Guineas, not stayed a mile, and then dropped back to the Commonwealth Cup/other sprint races subsequently.

This is likely to be the plan for SHADOW OF LIGHT now, as Appleby continued: "Will said to me, 'I can't tell you not to look towards the Guineas in the spring'. He wouldn't be the first Guineas horse to go there and not stay the mile on the day, and you can drop back to the Commonwealth, which we've seen done before. I imagine that will be our programme in the spring."

He is by LOPE DE VEGA out of a NEW APPROACH mare, though his half-brother EARTHLIGHT did his Group 1 winning at six furlongs. He certainly has the speed – will he stay?

JUMPING AHEAD

Looking over the weekend of action in the National Hunt sphere, a few performances stand out ahead of the others but before we dive into the highlights, we’d like to send our sympathies to the Twiston Davies’ yard after CUTHEBERT DIBBLE suffered a fatal breakdown on Saturday.

It’s easy for ordinary punters to forget about such things the moment they switch their phone screens off but for us, and that’s fine because we understand most punters are quite far removed from ‘equine’ life.

We, the writers behind this publication, live and breathe horses and deaths like CUTHEBERT’s become harder to deal with. Regular followers will have noticed we didn’t tweet again after that, even when we landed the Chepstow bumper gamble.

But, back to the highlights

Starting with the Friday of Chepstow, DESTROYTHEEVIDENCE looked classy when winning on chase debut. He was fortunate that HAITI COULEURS made a mistake at the last, but that doesn’t take away from what he did.

MY NOBLE LORD looked rather green on the Saturday of Chepstow and still got the job done, and he earned quotes for the Triumph Hurdle.

But it was LUMP SUM on Saturday that looked the best of the bunch, and he duly delivered on his long-term plan.

Dai Walters has always wanted to win the Welsh Champion Hurdle and he made sure he doubled his chances as STEEL ALLY chased him down only to be beaten by a neck. They are two nice horses, but it was clear who was better on the day.

Sam Thomas knows they are both smart ones, which is why LUMP SUM will stay over hurdles (and he is a slick hurdler too) while STEEL ALLY is likely to head over fences.

Shout out to Dylan Johnston, the new retained rider for Walters, who gave him a nice ride and he is certainly a jockey to watch with his five-pound claim to help.

WEEKEND EYE-CATCHERS

CITY OF LONDON – SATURDAY 13.30 CHEPSTOW

It’s hard to know how good MY NOBLE LORD is at this early stage (we don’t rate him) but CITY OF LONDON was certainly an eye-catcher when second to him.

For a while, it looked like he was going to steal it with some slick jumping (compared to MY NOBLE LORD’s sketchy leaps) and we loved the way he galloped.

Ultimately, the better horse on the day won, but one was tuned up and the other wasn’t. CITY OF LONDON was clearly carrying a bit of condition and he’ll certainly strip fitter for his good debut. His half-brother is the stable’s successful NEMEAN LION so his pedigree suggests he could be pretty good.

GA LAW – SATURDAY 16.00 CHEPSTOW

We all know about GA LAW by now thanks to his Paddy Power success in 2022, and yet he is still probably a bit underappreciated.

He had a troubled year last season as he only won once, but Jamie Snowden still holds a high level of belief in him and the degree of his seasonal return has made Showden reassess his next target.

Snowden was planning towards the Paddy Power at Cheltenham next month, but a switch back into Graded company for the 1965 Chase might be his next race instead.

Either way, his seasonal return was promising and should be watched.

ASTA LA PASTA – SUNDAY 15.20 FFOS LAS

BOOSTER BOB was quite impressive in the novices’ handicap chase at Ffos Las on Sunday, but ASTA LA PASTA was the loser to keep an eye on going forward.

He was top weight and didn’t always jump with fluency, but a fair few of Skelton’s runners are needing their first runs of the season and he is still unexposed having had just two runs in handicaps so far.

He was only beaten by six and a half lengths on Sunday, so with a run under his belt and more experience over fences, he you’d think he will be winning soon.

THE BIG MAN - SUNDAY 17.05 FFOS LAS

When the jumps starts, Adam Wedge stops. THE BIG MAN travelled with ease yesterday and was gently schooled over fences by Adam Wedge for Evan Williams. His second dam suggests this lad can be useful in time, perhaps over long and is certainly one to keep an eye on, especially given the late drift, a precursor to events.

RISK ON

After a mixed, but successful weekends punting (namely aided by the Skelton’s demolition job in the Chepstow bumper) we are going to be careful today and play wisely… if we can get on that is!

Any bets will be posted to X @equinties

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