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FOBT News
NOT long ago, betting shops were dark, dingy dens with a seedy aura. Typically windowless, smoky and cramped, they were seen as hideaways for punters after a stealthy flutter.
But gambling has undergone a facelift and bookmakers are now more likely to be fronted by gleaming glass facades, with trendy coffee bars and air conditioning within. Instead of remaining exclusively male bastions, women are increasingly being drawn by the more glamorous image.
And it�s all being reflected in the bank balances of the betting companies. Stanley Leisure, for example, which owns 600 betting shops and 41 casinos around the UK, has just reported its latest half-year profits which saw sales rise by 73 per cent in its betting division - from �382 million to �681m - a phenomenal increase. Meanwhile, online betting is booming.
So what is fuelling this surge in the popularity of betting?
A spokeswoman for Stanley Leisure says it is partly due to the introduction just over a year ago of fixed odds betting terminals. "New machines called FOBTs have proved very popular and those are what have been driving the growth recently," she says.
"They are terminals where people can play games like roulette and virtual dog racing, penalty shoot-outs and number games. They�re proving very popular."
But there is more behind the growth of the industry than the introduction of FOBTs. The Stanley spokeswoman says other factors include more choice of betting products, a change in taxation and a general shift in the industry, to make it more appealing to more potential betters.
"Last year, the Government changed the tax laws - they introduced tax on gross profits for the bookmaker which means the punter didn�t have to pay tax every time they placed a bet and instead the bookmakers paid it. That fuelled a lot of growth because the customers now tend to bet more because they have more money to bet since they don�t have to pay the tax so they can �recycle� the tax into betting. We�re having to pick up the tax bill but because they�re betting more, we�re making more profit.
"One other trend is that the betting operators want to be innovative in terms of the products they offer their clients." And she says betting shops have successfully broadened their appeal. "Betting shops have made a huge effort in renewing the look, making the atmosphere much more attractive and working on the branding.
"They have put air conditioning in their shops and become much more open. The whole industry of gaming and betting is being modernised and reviewed. There is a real trend to move betting and gaming into the normal, mainstream leisure arena alongside going to the cinema or going to a nightclub, and into the 21st century.
"That�s definitely broadening the appeal of betting. There isn�t the stigma attached to the betting shops of 50 years ago. There are definitely more women going into betting shops and they tend to play more on the numbers games. Traditionally, betting was much more male oriented."
Graham Sharpe, media relations director at William Hill, agrees the industry has smartened up its image. "Betting shops were legalised in the UK in 1961 and it was 25 years before the shops were permitted to put televisions in," he says.
Various pieces of legislation in the 18 years since, he adds, have combined to make betting more accessible. In 1995, the previous law requiring opaque windows was lifted, followed in 1997 by a law which allowed betting shops to advertise their locations.
"They no longer have to have obscured windows, you can now offer your customers more comfortable premises, you can now offer your customers the chance to have tea, coffee and refreshments," he says. "These days you wouldn�t apply for permission to open a betting shop unless you were prepared to offer a high standard within."
The advent of online betting has also been a major boost to the industry, as it enables a whole new market of customers who perhaps don�t want to display their hobby more openly, and prefer the convenience of the internet.
"It�s a very important part of our business," admits Sharpe. "We now have clients in more than 200 countries who bet through our online business. And there is still a very lively business in telephone betting." As for FOBTs, which have now been around for two years, Sharpe says: "They�re a development on fruit machines or �amusement with prize machines�. They offer a fixed odd bet via a machine and are another element of betting opportunities that are available in shops. At William Hill, we�ve introduced virtual racing - computer-generated horse and greyhound racing - in our shops. The more ranges you offer, the more choice you�re offering your customers."
Anything installed in the company�s betting shops, he says, has proven popularity. "We don�t keep things that aren�t popular, just as a supermarket wouldn�t waste shelf space stocking something that didn�t sell. All of these things are road tested and market researched."
A local success story, although it�s still in its early days, is Easibet and Easibet.net, launched last June in Tollcross by entrepreneur Henry Spurway, the Old Fettesian who first managed the Larkspur bookies chain. Spurway introduced a phenomenon known as "betting exchanges", where customers bet against each other rather than against a bookmaker.
"We�re trading very well," he says. "We have all the facilities - food, lattes, cappuccinos, espressos, roulette, online gambling, air conditioning - and all the latest technology and I have a bookmakers
licence. We�re like the old-fashioned commission agent. People bet against each other rather than the bookie, and when one wins we take a commission for allowing them to bet on our premises."
ANYONE can play in his cross between a bookie�s shop and an internet cafe: you simply post your odds and wait to see who - if anyone - is willing to take you on, whether it is on the traditional sports events or political outcomes or whose record will be at number one.
"A bookmaker used to be a commission agent and now it�s gone the whole way round and I am back to being a commission agent," he says. Like a stockbroker, you look for your customer�s best deal. I only take the commission if they win - and they win nothing off me, they win off each other, which is a totally novel concept on the high street."
He says, though, that over many years in the industry he hasn�t spotted any inherent change in gambling clientele. "A gambler�s a gambler," he says. "We attract them from across the board - from an 83-year-old man to young city whizz kids, sports people, traders.
"But we�re getting a lot of women in. They come in the morning for their pastries and cappuccinos and they like the roulette machine and some of them like a little bet on the horses too. Mothers and daughters come in together. One thing about horse-racing and gambling is there�s no class barrier. It�s one place where you can meet everybody from all walks of life, which makes it very attractive. I�ve got women coming in and playing for two hours on the machines on their own and not be at all inhibited by coming into a place that in the old days they wouldn�t have set foot inside."
He feels the shift in the industry towards more exchange betting - to which traditional bookmakers are fiercely opposed, since the odds on exchange betting are more attractive to the customer - is proving attractive.
"It�s very much the punters� business and they�re in charge. At one time, the big four bookmakers controlled everything. Now, people can walk into my shops and opt to be either the bookmaker or the gambler. This has to be the way forward."
Similarly, the world�s largest online betting company Betfair, with a turnover exceeding �50m per week, operates a system where gamblers play against each other. "You get the best odds as you are betting against other punters not against a traditional bookmaker," says a spokesman for the company, which runs with the slogan "revolutionising betting". "Odds are consistently around 20 per cent better."
Indeed, the online betting and gaming revolution, removing the role of the bookie, has dramatically altered betting, since punters can bet any time, anywhere.
And the industry is set for more changes, with the Government�s plans to deregulate the industry in the Gambling Bill, which looks set to become law in 2005. The new legislation will lift the restrictions on where casinos can be built, paving the way for casinos of no less than 5000 square feet, offering a limited number of fruit machines with jackpots of up to �1m.
The biggest legal shake-up to the industry since the 1960s, the Gambling Bill will effectively open the floodgates to investors - large American casino chains in particular - to open massive casino outlets across the country and is a topic of fierce debate between the political parties and those in the industry. Many fear it will lead to a sharp rise in the number of gambling addicts in the UK, while others say it will encourage investment and regeneration - and supply the Treasury with billions in extra income.
In the more immediate future though, with weather forecasters predicting Arctic conditions next week, William Hill has odds on the lowest temperatures ever recorded in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland being beaten in 2004. The firm offers 8:1 that a new Scottish low will beat the current record of minus 27.2C, which chilled thermometers in 1982.
But will you want to leave the warmth of your living room to place the bet?
Story courtesy of Miranda Fettes
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