I used to play footy quite a lot in my younger days. I had a mate who played a lot too - great guy, my best man in fact, and, despite living 5 hours away, a golfing partner for a week a year. Anyway, when we were younger and fitter we played footy together. He was little, skinny and fast as you like. Ran all day. Bit of a terrier. Played up front or on the wing. But, the thing was, he was afflicted by "the bobble". He'd skin defenders repeatedly but, as another lashed shot went into orbit, it was "the bobble what did it guv". Unluckiest player that ever did live. Divots on pitches materialised as if by magic. Even worse was, as we got older and started to play fives on dead flat astroturf, the bobble still cursed his shooting boots. We refer to it even now whenever a putt slides by.
So, on a completely unrelated matter, it was with interest that I read the "half term report" into Premierisation from the BHA.
It turns out that Premier fixtures have suffered a bigger drop in betting than other fixtures, including core fixtures. And it appears that sticking a badge on it and creating breathing space to "tell the story" has not had the desired effect. Quite the opposite in fact.
Forgive me for digressing for a moment but where did that "tell the story" narrative go? I think we were all seduced by images of older chaps sat in the armchairs on a Saturday afternoon clutching their mugs of tea (in I ♥ Grandad mugs, naturally) with a half eaten packet of digestives on the coffee table, for dunking purposes, and a freshly opened packet of Werthers Original as his grandkids gazed on adoringly as, for the 100th time, he was explaining just how far Crisp was ahead of Red Rum, whilst trainers came on the telly to explain just how their horses were beaten a combined 276 lengths over winter, only to magically come alive when the daffs came out. As Ron Manager would have observed "enduring image isn't it?". Except it never happened (apart from the horse/daffs/Lazarus bit)
Anyway, it turns out that Premierisation has, in fact, been a big success because, if you strip out festivals, the rest of the fixtures have performed ever so slightly less worse than everything else apparently. And there are perfectly valid excuses why festival betting was so far down (12.4% down if you're interested). And, so far, they don't even seem to involve a bobble at an inopportune moment. And they DEFINITELY don't involve a failed experiment that's involved shifting start times and decimating crowds at places like Ripon, Cartmel etc.
Exhibit A. Cheltenham. "Betting turnover was significantly down because of a lack of competitiveness and the cancellation of the Carousel race" (some element of paraphrasing). In fairness, the total lack of competitiveness only reared its head in 2024 as the previous few years have absolutely been uber competitive and there hasn't been a slew of odds on shots winning by half the length of the track in 2023. And 2022... Ok - I hear you cry - what about the cancellation of the Cross Country? And why did nobody think of The Cheese Wedges? I think we all agree that the decline in betting of 12.4% is completely explained by the removal of 3.5% of the races (1) that is about half way down the list when it comes to betting turnover. Or maybe it was the bobble.
Exhibit B. Royal Ascot "Betting turnover down because it clashed with the Euros". Yep - that'll be it. The Euro bobble. A quick check of the Euros fixtures on Royal Ascot Saturday (which, after all, is the day which is the main focus of Premierisation) reveals the mouthwatering, group stage, match up of Georgia v Czech Republic. If that's not a turnover killer I don't know what is, to be honest. Further investigations reveal that the 2pm kick off for each day of Royal Ascot were as follows;
Tuesday - no fixture
Wednesday - Croatia v Albania
Thursday - Slovenia v Serbia
Friday - Slovakia v Ukraine
Saturday - Georgia v Czech Republic
No wonder Royal Ascot couldn't survive the onslaught. Though, before you all shout at me, yes I know England v Denmark was the tea time kick off on the Thursday.
Exhibit C. Aintree. At this point I know what you're thinking. Surely they can't come up with a worse example of "the bobble" than the previous two exhibits? Turns out you're wrong my friend. They most assuredly can. "the Grand National being run earlier in the afternoon" was the reason for the reduced turnover there. Must've been one of those 10 o'clock jobs then? Well, no. In 2023 the Grand National was run at 5:15pm. In 2024 the Grand National was run at 4pm. The Goldilocks Zone, and one of the stated reasons for Premierisation, is 2pm - 4pm. That's the time the BHA want protected as that's the absolute best time for betting- not according to me, but according to them. So the National was moved from outside the Goldilocks zone in 2023 to the absolutely perfect "Golden Hour" of 4pm. Or, maybe, the Golden, Protected, Tell The Story 2 hours of betting perfection only applies to every single race APART from The Grand National, which needs to be outside the Protected Zone of 2pm - 4pm in order to justify the bobble.
So there you have it. A 12.4% drop in betting turnover was caused by the lack of cheese wedges, two ex Soviet bloc countries playing a group match and the National being moved to a time they've been telling us is the best time for betting for the last 2 years.
I'm begging you, whilst you can, let's support the live aspect of the sport by putting meetings on when people want to go (1pm - 6pm or so on Saturdays if you're wondering), going back to 7 race cards on Saturdays, so the paying public don't feel short changed, and getting rid of the shifted start times which are affecting attendances and appear to be offering no benefit whatsoever.
Or, alternatively, just look for another bobble.
And it's still not a word. I checked again, just in case.
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