Cheltenham 2016

Spent the last 2 days at Cheltenham .. Day 1, as a guest of Betdaq .. who still deem my support of their exchange worthy of hospitality, unlike some other exchanges, who dont.

I havent been, as a punter, for many years, and, the place has been really improved. They have spent bundles, and, its now well laid out, and people can flow, fairly easily .. apart from the Guiness Alley, which was rammed.

Its by no means cheap .. £55 for the tattersalls enclosure, £85 for club. The 10's of touts outside, will sell u one for cheap .. I paid £40 for a tatts tkt on day 2 .. could probably have got it for less. Touts obviously make a great deal of money .. they probably paid £20 or even less for the tkt .. so, just by buying and selling a commodity, they get a wage.

On a racecourse, u see lots of people trying to earn. Either daily security people, who get minimum wage, daily cashiers etc/cleaners/waiters .. its a broad cross-section. Given that they are being paid, maybe £60 for the day, I do wonder why they just dont back the horses, that are 'price-pusshed' in the betting shops, and arb them.

Betfred has a number of outlets on-course, and each day, he let u have a free £10, per £100 invested. Sure, u need the exchange account to hedge, and the ready cash .. but, I saw many people, who had tkts of up to £800 .. in theory, u are only allowed £100 a time, but, there are 10 cashiers a shop, at least 3 shops, and its rammed with people.

The bookies on-course have paid a pretty penny for their rights to bet .. anywhere from .. maybe £5000, to £300,000 for the 50 yr licence .. so, with the expenses associated, they need to bet to a decent margin to recoup their investment. I have no problem with this. Advantage players, will bet by mobile .. at lowest margins .. -- on-course punters, largely are price indifferent .. hard to believe, but true .. and deserve to be shafted.

The cheltenham festival is over 4 days, and, its always in March, and always cold. This year was no different, thou, the rain kept away.

Traffic is manic, and the price of coffee/burgers, sheer robbery, but, the atmosphere, is tremendous, and u do get a chance to meet up, with colleagues etc.

I enjoyed the 2 days ..