A bookmaker, bookie, or turf accountant is an organization or a person that accepts and pays off bets on sporting and other events at agreed-upon odds.
History[edit]
The first bookmaker, Ogden, stood at Newmarket in 1795.[1]
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Range of events[edit]
Bookmakers in many countries focus on accepting bets on professional sports, especially horse racing and association football (soccer). However, a wider range of bets, including on political elections, awards ceremonies such as the Oscars, and novelty bets are accepted by bookmakers in some countries.
Operational procedures[edit]
By 'adjusting the odds' in their favour (paying out amounts using odds that are less than what they determined to be the true odds) or by having a point spread, bookmakers aim to guarantee a profit by achieving a 'balanced book', either by getting an equal number of bets for each possible outcome or (when they are offering odds) by getting the amounts wagered on each outcome to reflect the odds.[2] When a large bet comes in, a bookmaker may also try to lay off the risk by buying bets from other bookmakers. Bookmakers do not generally attempt to make money from the bets themselves but rather by acting as market makers and profiting from the event regardless of the outcome. Their working methods are similar to those of an actuary, who does a similar balancing of financial outcomes of events for the assurance and insurance industries.
Legality[edit]
Depending on the country, bookmaking may be legal or illegal and is often regulated. In the United Kingdom, since 1 May 1961, bookmaking has been legal and has even been a small contributor to the British economy, with a recent explosion of interest with regard to the international gaming sector industry. However, gambling debts were unenforceable under British law until the Gambling Act 2005. Many bookmakers are members of IBAS, an industry organisation used to settle disputes.
Bookmaking is generally illegal in the United States, with Nevada being an exception due to the influence of Las Vegas. In May 2018, a United States Supreme Court ruling struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992, which prevented individual states from legalizing bookmaking.
In some countries, such as Singapore, Sweden, Canada, and Japan, the only legal bookmaker is owned and operated by the state. In Canada, this is part of the lottery programme and is known as Sport Select.
United Kingdom gambling industry[edit]
The first bookmaker in the United Kingdom is considered to be Harry Ogden, who opened a business in the 1790s, although similar activities had existed in other forms earlier in the eighteenth century.[3][4]
Following the Gaming Act 1845, the only gambling allowed in the United Kingdom was at race tracks. The introduction of special excursion trains meant that all classes of society could attend the new racecourses opening across the country. Cash flowed to the bookmakers who employed bodyguards against protection gangs operating within the vast crowds.[5] Illegal betting shops were fined, but some, like Bella Thomasson, ran betting businesses that the police appeared to turn a blind eye to.[6]
In 1961, Harold Macmillan's Conservative government legalised betting shops, with tough measures enacted to ensure that bookmakers remained honest. A large industry has grown since. At one time, there were over 15,000 betting shops. Now, through consolidation, they have been reduced to between 9,100 and 9,200 in 2013.[7] The group of the largest bookmakers in the country, known as the 'Big Three', comprises William Hill, Ladbrokes, and Coral.[8]
Improved TV coverage and the modernisation of the law have allowed betting in shops and casinos in most countries. In the UK, on-track bookies still mark up the odds on boards beside the race course and use tic-tac or mobile telephones to communicate the odds between their staff and to other bookies, but, with the modernisation of United Kingdom bookmaking laws, online and high street gambling are at an all-time high. A so-called super-casino had been planned for construction in Manchester, but the government announced that this plan had been scrapped on 26 February 2008.
Internet gambling[edit]
Although online gambling first started in 1994 when the licensing authority of Antigua and Barbuda passed the Free Trade & Processes Act, bookmakers did not get involved until 2001. They were forced to act when research at the time found there were eight million online players worldwide.[9]
With the arrival of the World Wide Web, many bookmakers have an online brand, but independently owned bookmakers often still maintain a 'bricks and mortar' only operation as the software and hardware required to operate a successful online betting operation are complex and their costs are quite prohibitive; other bookmakers operate 'skins' or 'white label' websites, which they purchase from one of the large firms. The main websites require bets to be from countries where Internet gambling is allowed and from people over 18 years old. Some small bookmakers and startups purchase software from specialised white label solution providers. Since gambling products have a high conversion rate from one niche to another, most online betting websites also feature other gambling products such as poker, live dealer casino games, lottery, bingo, slots and other casino games. Controversially, the explosion in Internet gambling is being linked to a rise in gambling addiction, according to the UK's help and advice organisations for addicts, GamCare and Gamblers Anonymous.
Increasingly, online bettors are turning to the use of betting exchanges such as Betfair and BETDAQ, which automatically match back and lay bets between different bettors, thus effectively cutting out the bookmaker's traditional profit margin also called an overround.
These online exchange markets operate a market index of prices near but usually not at 100% competitiveness, as exchanges take commissions on winnings. True wholesale odds are odds that operate at 100% of probabilistic outcomes.
Betting exchanges compete with the traditional bookmaker. They are generally able to offer punters better odds because of their much lower overheads but also give opportunities for arbitrage, the practice of taking advantage of a price differential between two or more markets. However, traditionally, arbitrage has always been possible by backing all outcomes with bookmakers (dutching), as opposed to laying an outcome on an exchange. Exchanges, however, allow bookmakers to see the state of the market and set their odds accordingly.
With the increasing number of online betting exchanges, betting exchanges are now providing free bet offers in an attempt to lure customers away from the competition. These free bets are generally based on the size of the deposit made into the gambling account. For example, if a customer made a deposit of $20, the betting exchange would deposit an additional $20 for the customer to use.[10] Free bet rules vary depending on the betting exchange.
Some bookmakers have even taken to using betting exchanges as a way of laying off unfavourable bets and thus reducing their overall exposure. This has led to insecurity from some TABs in Australia, state-run betting agencies that attempted to deny Betfair an Australian licence by running unfavourable ads in the media regarding the company. When Tasmania granted Betfair a licence despite these efforts, the Western Australian state legislature passed a law that specifically criminalised using betting exchanges from within the state; however, the law was later ruled to be unconstitutional. As a result, internet gambling in Australia required a new legal framework. The Interactive Gambling Act 2001 regulates the online gambling market in Australia, together with all its amendments. The last amendment was introduced on 13 September 2017. This bill states that online casinos, online poker and live betting is illegal in Australia. The Australian Communication and Media Authority (ACMA) is the regulatory body that is in charge of all supervising online gambling activities. Online sports betting is legal, however.[11]
Bets are also taken via phones, using email and SMS text messages,[12] though poker and other sports are more suited to other media. As technology moves on, the gambling world ensures it is a major player in new technology operations.
Most televised sports in the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe are now sponsored wholly or partly by Internet and high street bookmakers, with sometimes several bookmakers and online casinos being displayed on players' shirts, advertising hoardings, stadium signs and competition event titles. Sponsors are especially highlighted in the football category since football fans present a significant percentage of the target group the bookmakers serve.
Many of the bookmakers are sponsoring some of the major football teams in the major European football leagues,[13] although Werder Bremen are currently fighting the German courts for the freedom to continue featuring bookmaker Bwin on their shirts, as Germany and France take action against online gamers. For example, as of 1 January 2020, Germany bettors will not be able to bet more than €1,000 a month. The latest amendment of the ITG states that. New online sportsbook laws are expected in the near future in Germany, as this law is only temporary: the expiration date is set to be on 20 June 2020.[14]
The situation is not that strict in France, however. Online sports betting in France is divided into two sections: Autorité de Régulation des Jeux en Ligne (ARJEL) regulates online sports betting, while online horse betting is regulated by the law 'Decree 2010-498 from 17 May 2010. International bookmakers are allowed to enter the French market, thanks to the Law No. 2010-476 from 12 May 2010.[15][16]
With the recent banning of tobacco sponsorship[17] and the significant commercial budgets available to the gaming industry, sponsorship by car manufacturers, alcoholic drinks, soft drinks and fast-food marketers is being rapidly replaced by sponsorship from gaming companies in the Far East and Europe.
The United Kingdom's Gambling Act 2005 introduced a new regulatory system for governing gambling in Great Britain. This system includes new provisions for regulating the advertising of gambling products. These provisions of the Act came into effect in September 2007. It is an offence to advertise in the UK, gambling that physically takes place in a non-European Economic Area (EEA) or, in the case of gambling by remote means, gambling that is not regulated by the gambling laws of an EEA state. The Gambling Commission is the body that makes sure all sites and operators follow the new restrictions. In addition to the Gambling Act of 2005, according to the new gambling bill, online gambling sites are only allowed to offer services within the United Kingdom, if they are registered at the UK Gambling Commission.[18]
The situation is more confused in the United States, which has attempted to restrict operators of foreign gambling websites accessing their domestic market. This resulted in 2007 in a ruling against the US government by the World Trade Organization.[19] However, common online gambling laws in the United States still don't exist - it differs from state to state. All forms of online gambling are illegal within the states of Utah and Hawaii, while the states of Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey took a different approach: almost all forms of online gambling are legal in these states. These are the only US states where online casino sites can be legally registered. It is important to mention that Native Americans have their own gambling legislation - the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988. However, they need their state's approval in order to be able to offer their services online.[20]
See also[edit]
- Bookies – a German film
References[edit]
- ^Barrett, Norman, ed. (1995). The Daily Telegraph Chronicle of Horse Racing. Enfield, Middlesex: Guinness Publishing. p. 10.
- ^Cortis, Dominic (2015). 'Expected Values and variance in bookmaker payouts: A Theoretical Approach towards setting limits on odds'. Journal of Prediction Markets. 1. 9.
- ^Munting, Roger (1996). An Economic and Social History of Gambling in Britain and the USA. Manchester University Press. p. 89.
- ^Vamplew, Wray; Kay, Joyce. (2005). Encyclopedia of British Horseracing. Routledge. p. 50.
- ^Dick Kirby, The Race Track Gangs, The Peeler issue 7 July 2002, 'Friends of the Met Police Museum'
- ^'Thomason, Ann Arabella [known as Bella Thomasson] (1874–1959), bookmaker'. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/56685.
- ^Gambling Commission Gambling industry statistics April 2009 to September 2012
- ^Vamplew and Kay, p. 51.
- ^'A history of online casinos: infographic'. rightcasino.com.
- ^'The Most Common Sportsbook Bonus Types'. Retrieved 24 August 2014.
- ^Communications. 'Interactive Gambling Act 2001'. www.legislation.gov.au. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
- ^'Betfred.com Chooses OtherLevels' Platform to Power Their Mobile Marketing Campaigns'. Market Watch. 28 July 2014. Retrieved 24 August 2014.
- ^'A Look At Bookmakers Sponsoring Football Clubs'. ReliableBookies.com. 19 March 2013. Retrieved 19 March 2013.
- ^'Entwurf eines Dritten Staatsvertrages zur Änderung des Staatsvertrages zum Glücksspielwesen in Deutschland (Dritter Glücksspieländerungsstaatsvertrag)'(PDF). Landtag Nordrhein-Westfalen.
- ^LOI n° 2010-476 du 12 mai 2010 relative à l'ouverture à la concurrence et à la régulation du secteur des jeux d'argent et de hasard en ligne (1). Legifrance. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
- ^Décret n° 2010-498 du 17 mai 2010 relatif à la définition des courses hippiques supports des paris en ligne et aux principes généraux du pari mutuel. Legifrance. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
- ^Holman, C D'Arcy; Donovan, Robert; Corti, Billie; Jalleh, Geoffrey; Frizzell, Shirley; Carroll, Addy. 'Banning tobacco sponsorship: replacing tobacco with health messages and creating health-promoting environments'. The British Medical Journal. Retrieved 24 August 2014.
- ^'The Gambling (Licensing and Advertising) Act 2014'. UK Gambling Commission. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
- ^'WTO rules against US gaming ban'. BBC News. 30 March 2007. Retrieved 1 September 2011.
- ^'Public Law 100-497-OCT. 17, 1988: An Act to regulate gaming on Indian lands'(PDF). Government Publishing Office [US]. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
British screenwriter Steven Knight took inspiration from his father's stories of “incredibly well dressed,” “incredibly powerful” gangsters active in turn-of-the-century England when he invented the Shelby clan—the family of razor blade-wielding mobsters at the heart of his BBC drama “Peaky Blinders.” But it turns out that the Birmingham gang that lends the series its name actually existed, albeit in a different form than the family-centered criminal enterprise.
1920s Bookie
The real-life Peaky Blinders weren’t quite as successful as the rags-to-riches Shelbys, whose criminal network evolves from a small local faction to a multi-country powerhouse over the course of the show’s five seasons. Still, the two share a number of core similarities: namely, savvy fashion sense, a brutal disregard for the law and a member base made up largely of young working-class men. These youths, hardened by the economic deprivation rampant in industrial England, created what Historic U.K.’s Jessica Brain deems a “violent, criminal and organized” subculture.
As historian Carl Chinn, author of The Real Peaky Blinders, tells the Birmingham Mail’s Zoe Chamberlain, the main difference between the fictionalized Peaky Blinders and their historical counterparts is timing. Although the television drama is set during the 1920s and '30s, the actual Birmingham group rose to prominence closer to the 1890s.
And while Machiavellian anti-hero Tommy Shelby, his shellstruck brother Arthur and their band of enforcers derive the name “Peaky Blinders” from the razor blade-lined peaked caps worn by members of the gang, it’s unlikely the actual gangsters hid razors—then considered a luxury item—inside of their hats. (According to Chinn, the Shelby men use their covert weapons to “[slash] across the foreheads of their opponents, causing blood to pour down into their eyes and blind them.”) Instead, Brain writes for Historic U.K., the real Peaky Blinders likely owe their title to the distinctive peak of their caps, or perhaps the fact that they used the hats to hide their faces from victims. It’s also possible the nickname stems from the local slang term “blinder,” which was used to describe “particularly striking” individuals.
Arthur Matthison, a paint and varnish manufacturer who witnessed the gang’s antics firsthand, later described the archetypal Peaky Blinder as someone who “took pride in his personal appearance and dressed the part with skill.” He wore bell-bottomed trousers, hob-nailed boots, a colorful scarf and a peaked hat with a long elongated brim; his hair, Matthison adds, was “prison cropped all over his head, except for a quiff in front which was grown long and plastered down obliquely on his forehead.” Gang members’ girlfriends, meanwhile, donned a “lavish display of pearls” and gaudy silk handkerchiefs draped over their throats, according to Philip Gooderson’s The Gangs of Birmingham.
The Peaky Blinders’ dapper appearance belied their brutal treatment of rival gang members, police and the general public. Per a July 21, 1898, letter sent to the Birmingham Daily Mail by an anonymous “workman,” “No matter what part of the city one walks, gangs of ‘peaky blinders’ are to be seen, who ofttimes think nothing of grossly insulting passers by, be it a man, woman or child.”
Days before the concerned workman penned this missive, a street brawl between Blinders and the police resulted in one constable’s death. As Andrew Davies reports for History Extra, officer George Snipe was patrolling Birmingham’s city center when he and a colleague encountered six or seven gang members who had been “drinking all the day, and fighting all the evening.” Snipe arrested 23-year-old William Colerain for using lewd language, but the detainee’s friends quickly came to his rescue. During the clash that followed, one of the young men threw a brick at Snipe’s head with such force that he fractured the skull in two places. The constable died early the next morning. His killer, 19-year-old George “Cloggy Williams,” was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to a lifetime of penal servitude—a fate the Birmingham Daily Post said should serve as a warning to “every rowdy in Birmingham.”
David Cross, a historian at the West Midslands Police Museum, tells BBC News’ Michael Bradley that the Peaky Blinders targeted victims indiscriminately, choosing “anybody who looked vulnerable.” He says, “Anything that could be taken, they would take it.”
On March 23, 1890, for example, a group led by Thomas Mucklow attacked the younger George Eastwood after seeing him order a non-alcoholic ginger beer at the local pub. The outnumbered victim suffered “serious bodily contusions,” a skull fracture and multiple lacerations on his scalp. He spent more than three weeks in the hospital and had to undergo a “trepanning” operation in which doctors drilled a hole into his head. The Daily Post dubbed the incident a “murderous assault,” and the London Daily News identified the perpetrators as members of the “Small Heath Peaky Blinders.” According to Chinn, this mention represents the earliest known written reference to the gang.
Unlike their fictional counterparts, the real Blinders were far from criminal masterminds: Police mugshots of Harry Fowler, Ernest Bayles, Stephen McHickie and Thomas Gilbert detail minor offenses including “shop-breaking,” “bike theft” and acting under “false pretences.” Per the West Midlands Police Museum, which holds a collection of some 6,000 Victorian and Edwardian mugshots, Fowler—arrested in 1904—later fought in World War I. He spent 12 hours buried alive by a mortar bombardment and emerged from the battle with serious injuries. After the war, historian Corinne Brazier reveals, the severely injured Fowler made a living by selling postcards of himself dressed as a female nurse.
The Peaky Blinders dominated Birmingham until the dawn of World War I—a timeline reversed in the BBC drama, which finds Tommy, Arthur and John Shelby building their criminal enterprise after returning from the war. (All five seasons of show are now streaming on Netflix.) In truth, a rival gang called the Birmingham Boys assumed control of the region during the 1920s. Led by Billy Kimber, a gangsterChinn describes as a “very intelligent man with a fighting ability, a magnetic personality and a shrewd [awareness] of the importance of an alliance with London,” the group wielded influence until the 1930s, when another gang headed by Charles Sabini usurped its place in the English Midlands. Fictionalized versions of both rival gangs appear in “Peaky Blinders,” providing foils to Tommy’s Shelby Company Limited.
As Knight tells History Extra’s Jonathan Wright, one of the tales that inspired the show centers on his father’s childhood encounter with a group of local gangsters. Sent to deliver a message, the young boy found eight well-dressed men sitting around a table covered in money. Each wore a peaked cap and had a gun tucked inside their pocket.
1920s Cookies
“Just that image—smoke, booze and these immaculately dressed men in this slum in Birmingham—I thought, that’s the mythology, that’s the story, and that’s the first image I started to work with,” Knight says.
1920s Book Covers
Writing in The Real Peaky Blinders, Chinn similarly emphasizes the gang’s intangible allure.
1920s Book Characters
He concludes, “The ill-fame of the Peaky Blinders and their lurid name infused as it was with violence and gangsterism ensured that they would not be forgotten.”