|
Phil Bull
Phil Bull (9 April 1910 – 11 June 1989), born West Yorkshire, England, was a professional gambler, racehorse owner and publisher, who founded the Timeform private handicapping system for British horseracing. Since 1948, Timeform have produced performance ratings for every racehorse in Great Britain and, increasingly, internationally. Timeform ratings have become adopted as the British horseracing industry's unofficial, but authoritative, measure of racehorse performance. It was said of Bull in 1976 that "there is no more familiar figure on English racecourses than the stocky, bearded one of Mr Phil Bull". Many racing aphorisms can be attributed to Bull, such as "at the racecourse, keep your eyes open and your ears closed". Early life Phil Bull was born in Hemsworth, West Yorkshire, the son of a miner and a schoolteacher and was educated at the local Grammar School. In 1931 he graduated from Leeds University with a degree in mathematics. This mathematical grounding, as well as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the reorganisation of the Local Government Act 1972 which saw it formed from a large part of the West Riding of Yorkshire. The county had a recorded population of 2.3 million in the 2011 Census making it the fourth-largest by population in England. The largest towns are Huddersfield, Castleford, Batley, Bingley, Pontefract, Halifax, Brighouse, Keighley, Pudsey, Morley and Dewsbury. The three cities of West Yorkshire are Bradford, Leeds and Wakefield. West Yorkshire consists of five metropolitan boroughs (City of Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, City of Leeds and City of Wakefield); it is bordered by the counties of Derbyshire to the south, Greater Manchester to the south-west, Lancash ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Season (sport)
In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of September. In other team sports, like association football or basketball, it is generally from August or September to May although in some countries - such as Northern Europe or East Asia - the season starts in the spring and finishes in autumn, mainly due to weather conditions encountered during the winter. A year can often be broken up into several distinct sections (sometimes themselves called seasons). These are: a preseason, a series of exhibition games played for training purposes; a regular season, the main period of the league's competition; the postseason, a playoff tournament played against the league's top teams to determine the league's champion; and the offseason, the time when there is no official competition. Preseason In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flat Racing
Horse racing is an equestrian performance sport, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its basic premise – to identify which of two or more horses is the fastest over a set course or distance – has been mostly unchanged since at least classical antiquity. Horse races vary widely in format, and many countries have developed their own particular traditions around the sport. Variations include restricting races to particular breeds, running over obstacles, running over different distances, running on different track surfaces, and running in different gaits. In some races, horses are assigned different weights to carry to reflect differences in ability, a process known as handicapping. While horses are sometimes raced purely for sport, a major part of horse racing's interest and economic importance is in the gambling associated with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Betfair
Betfair is a British Gambling, gambling company which operates the world's largest online betting exchange. Its product offering also includes sports betting, online casino, online poker, and online bingo. Founded in 2000, the business is split into two divisions, United Kingdom, UK and International. UK operations are conducted from its headquarters in Hammersmith in Greater London, while its International business operates from its overseas hubs in Malta and Ceuta, Spain. In February 2016, Betfair merged with Paddy Power to create Flutter Entertainment. History The company was founded in June 2000, by Andrew Black (gambling entrepreneur), Andrew Black and Edward Wray. Softbank purchased 23% of Betfair in early April 2006, valuing the company at GBP, £1.5 billion. In December 2006, Betfair completed the purchase of the horseracing publishing company Timeform (which traded under the name Portway Press Ltd). Betfair was the first betting company to sponsor an English football ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Betting Exchange
A betting exchange is a marketplace for customers to bet on the outcome of discrete events. Betting exchanges offer the same opportunities to bet as a bookmaker with a few differences. Gamblers can buy (also known as "back") and sell (also known as "lay") the outcome, and they can trade in real-time throughout the event, either to cut their losses or lock in profit. Bookmaker operators generate revenue by offering less efficient odds. Betting exchanges normally generate revenue by charging a small commission on winning bets. History The first betting exchanges were Matchbook, flutter.com and Betfair. Flutter and Betfair merged in 2001 with Betfair chosen as the primary betting exchange. The flutter.com site ceased operations in January 2002. Since then Betfair has maintained a leading position in the betting exchange market. BETDAQ (which also traded as the 'Ladbrokes Exchange') is believed to be the second largest betting exchange and it had an estimated 7% share of the bettin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dick Whitford
Dick, Dicks, or Dick's may refer to: Media * ''Dicks'' (album), a 2004 album by Fila Brazillia * Dicks (band), a musical group * ''Dick'' (film), a 1999 American comedy film * "Dick" (song), a 2019 song by Starboi3 featuring Doja Cat Names * Dick (nickname), an index of people nicknamed Dick * Dick (surname) * Dicks (surname) * Dick, a diminutive for Richard * Dicks (writer) (1823–1891), a pen name of Edmond de la Fontaine of Luxembourg * Dicks., botanical author abbreviation for James Dickson (1738–1822) Places * Dicks Butte, a mountain in California * Dick's Drive-In, a Seattle, Washington-based fast food chain * Dick's Sporting Goods, a major sporting goods retailer in the United States * Dick's Sporting Goods Park, a soccer stadium in Denver, Colorado Other uses * Dick (slang), a dysphemism for the penis as well as a pejorative epithet * Detective, in early 20th century or 19th century English * Democratic Indira Congress (Karunakaran), or DIC(K), a political party ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis powers. World War II was a total war that directly involved more than 100 million personnel from more than 30 countries. The major participants in the war threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. Aircraft played a major role in the conflict, enabling the strategic bombing of population centres and deploying the only two nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II was by far the deadliest conflict in human history; it resulted in 70 to 85 million fatalities, mostly among civilians. Tens of millions died due to genocides (including the Holocaust), starvation, ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crazy Gang (comedy Group)
The Crazy Gang were a group of British entertainers, formed in the early 1930s. In the mature form the group's six men were Bud Flanagan, Chesney Allen, Nervo and Knox, Jimmy Nervo, Nervo and Knox, Teddy Knox, Charlie Naughton and Jimmy Gold. The group achieved considerable domestic popularity and were a favourite of the British Royal Family, Royal Family, especially King George VI of the United Kingdom, George VI. Formation Although George Black (Producer), George Black is often credited with the formation of the Crazy Gang, the start was more complicated. In 1931, three double acts (Nervo and Knox, Naughton and Gold and Billy Caryll and Hilda Mundy) were tentatively booked at the London Palladium. This caused Black to consider cancelling one of the couples. Nervo and Knox had a technique of entering other acts and Black was persuaded to overcome the difficulty by letting this happen. The show, which was called ''Crazy Week'' opened on 30 November 1931. Other Crazy Weeks ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bud Flanagan
Bud Flanagan, (born Chaim Reuben Weintrop, 14 October 1896 – 20 October 1968) was a British music hall and vaudeville entertainer and comedian, and later a television and film actor. He was best known as a double act with Chesney Allen. Flanagan was famous as a wartime entertainer and his achievements were recognised when he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1959. Family background Flanagan was born in Whitechapel, in the East End of London. His parents, Wolf Weintrop (1856–1932) and Yetta (Kitty) Weintrop (1856–1935) were Polish Jews who were married in the city of Radom, Poland, and fled to Łódź on their wedding day to avoid a pogrom. Wolf and Yetta Weintrop intended to escape to the "New World" from Eastern Europe – they paid for a ticket to New York, but a dishonest ticket agent gave them a ticket to London. In London, Wolf learned to be a shoe and bootmaker, earning extra money singing as a part-time cantor ( Hazzan) an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Hill (businessman)
William Hill (16 July 1903 – 15 October 1971) was the founder of William Hill, the British bookmaking firm. Born in Birmingham, Hill left school at the age of twelve to work on his uncle's farm. While working in a factory in Birmingham he started collecting illegal bets from local people on his motorcycle. In 1919, Hill joined the Royal Irish Constabulary (Cork East Riding - and is documented on the RIC records as such) as a driver while underage (16) and was stationed in Mallow, County Cork, Ireland. After the hopeless failure of his first foray into bookmaking, he moved to London in 1929 where he started taking bets on greyhounds before opening an illicit gambling den in Jermyn Street in 1934. He exploited a loophole which allowed credit or postal betting but not cash. In 1938 he was the joint owner of Lone Keel who went on to win the 1938 English Greyhound Derby. In 1944 he produced the first fixed-odds football coupon. In 1954 he reversed his business into ''Holder's Inv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bookmaker
A bookmaker, bookie, or turf accountant is an organization or a person that accepts and pays off bets on sporting and other events at agreed-upon odds. History The first bookmaker, Ogden, stood at Newmarket in 1795. Range of events Bookmakers in many countries focus on accepting bets on professional sports, especially horse racing and association football or Indian Premier League cricket. However, a wider range of bets, including on political elections, awards ceremonies such as the Oscars, and novelty bets are accepted by bookmakers in some countries. Operational procedures By "adjusting the odds" in their favour (paying out amounts using odds that are less than what they determined to be the true odds) or by having a point spread, bookmakers aim to guarantee a profit by achieving a 'balanced book', either by getting an equal number of bets for each possible outcome or (when they are offering odds) by getting the amounts wagered on each outcome to reflect the odds. W ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
