Legendary bookie Henry Spurway has shaken up the Scottish betting industry. Now he’s set to bring his ‘one-stop shop’ for punting down south – if the courts don’t stop him. Richard Bath met the man and saw the future.
He may once have been Billy Connolly’s manager, but for the big multi-national betting chains, dapper Scots toff Henry Spurway is no laughing matter. In fact, the former casino owner, vaudeville promoter and racehorse owner is their worst nightmare. He is the man who looks set to change the face of punting forever.
I spoke to Spurway shortly after a Scottish judge had thrown out a case against him brought by William Hill. It may turn out to be one of the most significant decisions a judge has ever taken on betting. Basically, in a unique experiment in Edinburgh, Spurway has pioneered easibet.net, a truly revolutionary ‘onestop shop’ for punting. As well as the usual cash bets, punters can also indulge in in-running bets and lay selections to lose in a way that used to be the exclusive preserve of bookies. In the near future, thanks to a tie-up with Sporting Index, they will also be able to spread bet in Spurway’s gambling emporium.
The shiny new £500,000 flagship facility in the city’s Tollcross area has a bank of 14 terminals with broadband connections and a room of traders scouring the world to find the best value, whether punting or laying. As Spurway says: ‘The whole set-up is more like a stockbrokers’ office than a traditional bookies.’ It is, in truth, more like a cross between a newspaper office on deadline and a day-trading hothouse.
‘We’ve got a rank of traders, one from Bell White, another from London, another a Chinese specialist,’ he says, ‘but the emphasis is very much on online betting, although we do have cash betting for those folk who can’t use a terminal.
‘But we’re finding that many of our customers run what amount to self-contained businesses working for themselves from our terminals – we are merely the facilitators. We’ve got a few really successful punters already: one made £16,000 last week, another made £30,000 in three months and a third made £90,000 in the same period.
‘For these guys it’s like a day in the office – a very exciting office, mind. We even have a caf
