Sunday 31st December 2023

The Blog Is Back

When I began writing these blogs to document the on-course journey of AK BETS the intention was to write one a month. This was scaled back to one every couple of months. Then time became more scarce. And like the AK Bets podcasts I’m supposed to be doing every month, interviewing an interesting guest from the gambling world, motivation and interest can sometimes be lacking. 

It still blows my mind Nick Luck records a daily horse racing podcast. I often wonder how many airport departure lounges he’s sat on the floor of and sighed ‘ok let’s get this over and done with’. Respect.

Fast forward 13 months and I’m finally putting pen to paper (so to speak) again. New Year’s Eve of a crazy 2023 feels like the appropriate time. The gym membership has been renewed for another year, starts 9th January and ends mid-Feb if we’re lucky, and optimism courses through my veins.

A former life spent gambling for a living and eeking out the EV in every conceivable situation, from SSBT terminals to which queue to join at airport baggage scanners (top tip: avoid shorter lines with pensioners), suggests it’s about time I got some sort of return from the 70 Euro I send WordPress every year.

AK Bets Go Online

It was always the intention when starting up on-course to parlay the ‘brand’ (vomit) into the world of Online. 

I’m convinced Luck plays a much bigger role in life than Skill. And I think I was lucky that when I took out the on-course license and began dicking about in a few videos on Twitter that the platform still worked and the reach was strong. Our first video that gained a bit of traction was playing Everybody Hurts by REM in the car journey back from Dundalk after doing our conkers. A spare of the moment decision mainly because I like the song and it resonated at the time.

Funny story about that particular video was that ill-fated night at Dundalk occurred about a month after my only staff member (still hate saying staff – colleague is more appropriate) had jacked in his 12-year job as a Boylesports shop manager to come and work with me after I went all Mourinho on him and sold him a dream. His Mrs saw the video and rang him in a panic asking if he’d still have a job in the morning. Sadly the Oscar nomination never arrived.

Friday 10th March 2023

D-Day. Months speaking with platform providers and lawyers negotiating the deal resulted in AKBets.Bet going live on the Friday before Cheltenham. If anything it was too soon. I HAD to get live for Cheltenham. The intention was to firefight as we went along. I say ‘we’. I was the only employee.

The first 7 weeks were tough. It’s no lie to say I worked from 7:30am to 10pm 7 days a week for those first 7 weeks. The weird thing was it was enjoyable. But it was mentally draining. Family-time was sacrificed again for the greater good. Pros and Cons.

At the end of April my Mrs went away with her family (the siblings took her dad to Lisbon) for the weekend. Over that long weekend and into the following week our banking facilities were switched but failed to work. We had about 150 withdrawals to pay and simply couldn’t through no fault of our own. It felt like all the work put in would be wasted. I personally rang all affected customers to explain the situation. It was an absolute mess and I was at breaking point. I feel lucky this news didn’t break on Twitter at the time. I fear the pile-on would have been very real.

At the same time my eldest boy ended up in Tallaght Hospital. I now had customers who had my personal phone number hounding me for updates as I sat in a cubicle with my non-responsive son. I cried a bit for a day or two. Was it really worth this?

I’ll be honest with you I’m not sure the Mrs will go on holiday again!

Alls well that ends well my boy recovered and withdrawals were paid by the end of that week. I’m sure we lost customers over it and I don’t blame them one bit. Thankfully since that week at the end of April we’ve had no issues with our current payment provider.

New Bodies

From the start of May I began hiring. It’s fair to say the firm has an old-school Paddy Power vibe. My Head of Risk is ex-PP from the Football Team. My Head of Strategy & Performance ran GB & Ireland for PP. Some of my Traders are ex-PP who focused on Football. Our PR guy and On-Course Rep was a District Manager for PP. Senior guys I’m lucky to have on Team AK.

We added James Pryce Entain’s (Ladbrokes & Coral) Greyhound Compiler who has been another solid addition to the ranks and we’ve some exciting news coming with Greyhounds in 2024. Watch this space.

We’re still recruiting. Check out the Job Advert on LinkedIn/Twitter/X.

Over 50% of our turnover is on Football. Horse Racing is comfortably Sport 2. Having the Football Trading knowledge underappreciated by our ‘rivals’ has been a blessing.

Due to the emphasis on Football it’s fair to say June and July were lean enough months. Our football customers hibernated with a lack of worthwhile action to get stuck into. I described the lack of sport this summer as akin to the year Zara Philips won SPOTY. The litmus test was always going to be August. As soon as the domestic football season started we’d know were we stood as a betting company. Would all the work put in be rewarded with turnover?

Gangbusters

Since August the firm has blossomed. Turnover is very strong and we’re in a far better position than even I would have dreamed of when starting up. 

My worry when taking the leap was would AK BETS be able to cut through in the saturated UK & Ireland gambling space? Would our reputation on-course for laying a fair bet at a fair price translate to the Online world? Thankfully, the answer has been Yes to both questions.

2024

I’ve lots of ideas and plans for 2024. There are a few regulatory concerns around the corner where I believe the well-intentioned are going to make mistakes in relation to gambling harm. But we will adapt to their folly. AKBets.Bet is going to continue to grow into 2024 of that I’m fairly confident.

I sign off with genuine thanks to the customers who have bet with us On-course and Online in 2023.

We can’t be all things to all men. 

But we’re going to give it our best shot.