'Consultation over the Gambling Introductory Offer Loopholes board' blog discussion

Late_To_Bed

We are all adults.

Strengthen the warnings if you feel like you must, but please don't close a resource that is so valuable for so many people.

It's like closing all the pubs because 0.01% os an alcoholic. Why punish the majority of people because a minority are too stupid to understand the rules.

BGB

jaydeeuk1 wrote: »

To be fair, arbing is slightly more risky than just doing a straight matched bet for a small loss. We might be able to distinguish between a palp and a valid bet, but a new starter won't. If you're lucky, the book might pay out on adjusted odds, if they're gits, they won't pay out at all (I have a list somewhere of books to avoid like this)

And for the record, I haven't placed an arb bet for 2 years

Arbing isn't really what GIOL is there for. I see very few posts with straight arbs in and of those that do appear they are swiftly locked.

In response to my post. So there have been 2 instances to your knowledge where people have lost money following the instructions on the board, one of which was covered by betfair anyway. Consider how many people have made mistakes dealing with their mortgage, stoozing after reading posts on MSE. Should we close all those forums?

Yopur point about an Afghani bookmaker is spurious. How many Afghani books are in possession of a decent rating? The board is for the most part filled with offers from major UK books like Paddy Power, Ladbrokes, etc. If anything the departure from genuine introductory offers has reduced not increased the risk of posters having money in an insolvent book.

bifbet

The debate seems to be around exposing people to offers that may be above their knowledge and experiance and thus introducing an element of risk.

As a proposal What if the forum was divided into a simple sign up offer section and an advanced area.
SUB section would have simple guides to major UK bookies only and Sign up bonus only.
There is an easy thousand pounds to be made from the major UK books which is as risk free as this will ever be. Section would have all areas other than "Ask a question here" locked.
Essentially introductory guide, list of reliable major UK books and questions answered only.

Access to advanced section being subject to having selected some form of "accessed button" on the sign up section and a 6 month cooling off period.
This way newbies will have to serve there apprenticeship before reading the more advanced offers.

Admitted the inital access rights to advanced area would have to be established via a very short term waiver indicating the user has a reasonable knowledge of the subject. This would only be advertised on the GIOL thus not attracting general users from the site and protecting Martins interest.

I have enough experiance to choose which of the offers give enough profit to be worth it imho, i no longer sign up for obscure foreign books, i pick and choose the laddies offers depending on whether i deem the return worth my effort.
It is however only through years of reading and learning from this forum that i am able to do so.
There are people on this forum whose knowledge and generosity constantly impress. It would be a sad day for mse if these people moved on.

This forum is still invaluable for flagging up offers such as the boyles mobile offer that i otherwise would miss and as such remains a daily calling point.


If it does go i'll be sorry, it's helped make me a fortune. Thanks for making it available in the first place Martin.

duchy

Frankly if Martin can't be bothered tasking staff to investigate matched betting by trying it with an open mind and reporting back then all this discussion is a waste of time..........or he's more concerned with his own image and less concerned with genuinely helping people. Ah well MSE had its good years when the ethos was appealing but seems like those days are gone and money is talking (in all the wrong ways)

nicknameless

MSE_Dan wrote: »

Hi RedJoker,

This absolutely is a consultation, for all of the reasons explained in detail on the blog.

Many sites wouldn't involve users in decisions such as this - but we 100% believe it is the right thing to do so, so we have.

Dan

Hi Dan,

That's very good news indeed as this thread is so far demonstrating a clear majority in favour of keeping the board open on MSE.

Democratic MSE. Just how we'd expect decisions to be made by Martin and co. Thanks for reassuring everyone that this is how the decision regarding the fate of GIOL will be made.

Best wishes,

N.

Somerset

Like RedJoker, I think the decision's already been taken. Gambling or matched betting doesn't fit this site's profile - the profile is all about consumer spending, gas prices, snowballing your debt etc. Martin goes on tv and someone lobs this sub forum at him - ''how do you defend a gambling forum?'' or ''do you think MSE encourages gambling addiction?''. Doesn't matter that it's garbage - are you going to use those precious minutes on tv explaining to the interviewer what MB is as opposed to looking at the weekly shop and suggesting own-brand products ? It's not really what Martin or MSE is about.

If it's causing MSE grief they'll shut it down.

Smeagal

blades123 wrote: »

There are a number of mis-conceptions which people are posting to try and close this site down. I think one was from earlier today which has been deleted. You said arbing wan't risk free. How is arbing not risk free? Ain't that the point of match betting i.e to find arbs?

You might see it as risk free and so might I but MSE towers decided it wasn't risk free and for it not to be discussed here, that's why there was never a 'ongoing arbs thread' here like there was at rpoints.

I think I'm right in saying that when Tim was a mod posting arbs wasn't allowed on the board, for sure the PRS thread wouldn't have lasted 5 minutes had he still have been the board guide.

That's not a dig at JM by the way, she does great work but she is just not as experienced in this game as Tim was.

shaneshaneshane

I think Big Don should decide...

nicknameless

Somerset wrote: »

Like RedJoker, I think the decision's already been taken. Gambling or matched betting doesn't fit this site's profile - the profile is all about consumer spending, gas prices, snowballing your debt etc. Martin goes on tv and someone lobs this sub forum at him - ''how do you defend a gambling forum?'' or ''do you think MSE encourages gambling addiction?''. Doesn't matter that it's garbage - are you going to use those precious minutes on tv explaining to the interviewer what MB is as opposed to looking at the weekly shop and suggesting own-brand products ? It's not really what Martin or MSE is about.

If it's causing MSE grief they'll shut it down.

Ah but Dan has assured us above that users will have sway over this decision. If this thread demonstrates a clear majority of posting users in favour, as has been the case so far i believe, then it would be very poor PR to then ignore that sentiment wouldn't it ;)

3bets

You shouldn't shut down the board because a small minority jump in without first reading all the information available. That is unfair on those of us who make money out of this.

I started off on the rest of the board saving pennies, however after starting matched betting I have made £2100 in just under 5 months. This is helping me towards buying my first house.

If anything you should be looking to improve the board. Perhaps split it into 2 sections:

1. Simple sign up offers for those new to matched betting.
2. Advanced offers for those more comfortable with the concept.

On top of this why not promote some of the older members to police the forum e.g. Grumbler, to lock threads/delete posts that talk about gambling.