SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Team SBC joined the thousands who flocked to horse racing’s place of worship last week thanks to an invitation to the Cheltenham Festival Ladies Day courtesy of gentlemen bookmakers Star Sports. Headed up by the irrepressible Ben Keith, Star Sports has carved a reputation as a high end bookmaker with pitches at some of the biggest racecourses, including Cheltenham.
The Star Sports box was superbly located, with one of the best views of the finishing line from an elevated position. Just next door was the Coral box, from where Alan Brazil broadcast his popular (and now Coral sponsored) talkSPORT breakfast show all week.
The wonderful contradiction of Cheltenham is that the best positioned boxes are also the most cramped, with racing aficionados literally rubbing shoulders with one another. But this adds to the charm of the occasion and brings people together physically almost reminiscent of the old style football grounds. It’s a great experience to be on the veranda shouting home a willing runner when all around you are doing the same.
It obviously helps if you have a winner as well, and Star Sports guests were treated to four different tipsters all giving their expert view on the day’ s races. The bookmaker’s own Luke Tarr was joined by City AM racing editor Bill Esdaile, The Sun’s Claude Duval and jockey Andrew Thornton. With all four frequently making different selections on a very open racecard, it was down to guests to decide which tipster had the best form and back accordingly.
Star Sports also had another surprise for guests; a sneak preview of the bookmaker’s latest product which it intends to offer online to its discerning client list.
The racing itself threw up a series of exciting finishes, including two photos, one of which was after the 3 mile plus cross country chase. This helped make the racing very enjoyable, given Team SBC’s inability to find a winner during the day. But we were in good company, given the bumper results across the Festival enjoyed by bookmakers.
Time to save up some funds for the National now!
