#BettingPeople

#BettingPeople: Jerry White, bookmaker’s assistant and professional punter has been in the game man and boy. He was introduced to and fell in love with greyhound racing before he was of legal age to bet. He cut his teeth at both the dogs and horseracing and even went behind the scenes working in a yard for a period of time. In his time on course, he’d known some of the legendary punters of the day in an environment where the underworld wasn’t very far away. These four parts cover some fascinating stories, the bonus episode covers Jerry’s parallel life in music mixing with Britpop Royalty and punk rock legends. Was Jerry born lucky? You decide!

#BettingPeople: William Morgan, educated at Radley and Cambridge, was an amateur jockey for 30 years, the manager of Limestone Stud for 20 years, a Jockey Club steward for 10 years, a Trustee of the European Breeders Fund, a council member of the Thoroughbred Breeders Association, writer for various breeding publications, and member of the Race-Planning committee 2002 -2009. William was also a committee member of Carlisle racecourse who still found time to write four huge volumes on long gone racecourses called ‘Strongholds Of Satan.’ Two versions have been published, both of which stand at 1,032 and 1,016 A4-sized pages, whilst another version is on the printers.

Strongholds of Satan can be found at: mainholmpress.co.uk

#BettingPeople: Chris went from having his very first bet, a tip from a computer program in 1991 to becoming a full time professional punter in seven years. He’s since educated himself along the way creating bots and AI programs to beat the bookmakers, he’s now co-founder of SharpBetting.co.uk and sharing his knowledge.

#BettingPeople: Barry Hearn rose from lowly beginnings in the East End of London to become one of the most successful sports promoters of recent times. He was responsible for the rise of Steve Davis and the popularity of snooker and went on to make household names of countless sportsmen and sports.

His Matchroom empire is now headed by his son Eddie, but ambition and passion still burns bright in the patriarch of the business, Barry. In this punchy interview, he talks about his rise to the top and how he has dealt mentally with the highs and lows on the way, talks about his top 10 rules and gives valuable advice to anyone wishing to succeed in business.

#BettingPeople: Terry Allen is an ex-Jockey Club Betting Intelligence Officer, SP Returner and SP Validator who has also clerked for on-course bookmakers, run betting shops worked as a Pontins Bluecoat and once appeared as a dancer on Ready Stardy Go and shared a dressing room with The Kinks. In this three-part interview, he talks about his career.

#BettingPeople: Dual-purpose trainer Joe Tickle has worked his way through the ranks in racing as a Jockey and assistant trainer, he’s now training under his own name and is expanding his operation and enjoying winners in both codes. In this four-part interview, he talks about the reality of getting a foothold on the training ladder.

#BettingPeople: Rolf Johnson has worked directly under and knew and been balled out by Phil Bull, Ryan Price, David Elsworth and Toby Balding as well as working at The Scout at the Daily Express writes for Highclere and various publications worldwide. In this interview he talks about his life in racing and beyond which has seen him work with the greats and travel the globe.

Award-winning racing journalist and author Geoff Lester got a job at the Sporting Life in 1964 after being told by his careers teacher he couldn’t become a racing journalist. He stayed at the paper until it closed in 1998. In this four-part interview, he talks about his long career where he mixed with the royals and rascals on the turf and travelled the world in search of a racing scoop.

Veteran professional punter Alan Potts was one of our first #BettingPeople interviewees back in 2017. We caught up with him again to find out how the mop has flopped since that initial interview. Alan says ‘there’s lots of talk about winners but never forget there were also thousands of losing bets. But the losers don’t make such good stories!’

Professional punter and now also tipster by necessity, Ian Richards has made a living by spotting value in a host of varied markets for decades. In this interview, he talks about the sorts of sports he has utilised to his betting advantage over the years, and how lockdown drew him to his current preferred value-seeking betting.