Old-fashioned values

Bookmaking’s image has changed. Alongside the arrival of the betting exchanges, the evolution of the big names like Hills, Coral, Betfred and Ladbrokes into gaming operators rather than old-style bookmakers has seen the decline of the family firms where clients could be sure of the personal touch, total discretion and often half a point or so above the generally quoted odds. Most of the big firms have decided too that telephone betting is not for them, which is how I have (part accidentally) become — to Mrs Oakley’s surprise and potential alarm — a client of Fitzdares, a bespoke operation catering mostly for high-rollers and happy to be described as ‘the Annabel’s of bookmaking’.

I had an account with the Tote, which passed to Betfred when it purchased the nationwide pool-betting organisation promising a better service. That ‘better service’ included an abrupt declaration one morning when I called in with my mostly £5 and £10 wagers that it no longer accepted telephone bets.