The World's Most Expensive 'Non-Service'?

We punters have to be the most resilient (stupid?) creatures on the planet.

Last weekend I was fortunate enough to collect a substantial six figure sum from Interbet when NZ lifted the Rugby World Cup. It comprised no less than 470 bets placed from November 14th 2014 until the week before the final when NZ shortened to 6/10 and the 'value' became exhausted.

I tend to play the UK racing markets only and simply 'invested' the proceeds from every successful wager onto the All Blacks. I avoid SA racing for a number of reasons (and they are merely my opinion) - Poor value on form horses, unfathomable results and, in particular, boring tracks when compared to, say, twenty years ago.

I mention this only because the actual process of betting and following my fancies' fortunes was (and remains) an incredibly frustrating process. I list my reasons hereunder:

Broadcasting of live racing prioritises local racing. I have no problem with that at all so long as it focuses on the RACING. But when Tellytrack schedules a live broadcast of a UK race in which I have a (sometimes substantial) interest and I am denied seeing all or part of that race because the operator is ramming Soccer Ten 'tips' down our throats or lovingly telling us about swinger dividends I tend to get a bit crabby.

At one point I was optimistic that the streaming would solve this issue but this has not proved to be the case. The International channel does, indeed, flight some races but nowadays these are seldom 'live'. Recently there have been delayed transmissions of up to 20-30 minutes. I suspect that this has something to do with the operator's spiteful dispute with bookmakers. But, as usual, it is the punter who is getting the short end of the stick.

My Interbet account reveals that I have paid the operator a massive sum of money this year for 'services' which, in most cases, it has not delivered. Talk about fostering customer support!

I suppose I should be grateful that the operator is not responsible for sports broadcasting or I might have had to endure a spurious 'technical issue' and subsequent blackout on the rugby too.....

Sadly Interbet also seem to be going the same way. They are presently advertising streaming on UK racing which, unfortunately, does not seem to be actually working. At least not this last weekend it wasn't. I called them and they said their IT people were 'looking into it'.Yet nobody thought it important enough to put a notice up on their site that the 'service' was temporarily unavailable. Thank goodness for William Hill radio so I can, at least, listen to a race live.

Furthermore you have to have placed a bet within an hour of viewing or you are barred from watching it. So if you back a horse more than 1 hour in advance of the race you run the risk of not being able to view the event. Who dreams up this stupidity? Surely you should encourage anyone and everyone to view in the hope they will inevitably place a bet?

Not difficult to see why any prospective or half interested punter would quickly give up.

Garrick great post..

I dont have UK racing at home but never miss a race..

you can watch on a laptop or desktop here > cricfree.tv/

Just make sure your security is upto date, there is annoying pop ups but if you load the channel you want and click on the wee x the pop ups disapear

I have not been able to watch a UK race on Interbet for months ................bet or no bet .....................what is really annoying is making a fair investment on UK exotics &/or Jpot Qmix's ................and they don't qualify as a bet!

Equally annoying is you can spend 000's with Tab-online but don't qualify to watch...........................great customer service!

(corporatisation was marketed as making racing more businesslike ..............but card changes are only reflected on Saftote,over an hour after tote betting opens on-line. What business opens their doors an hour before they show you the final product? )

Can view the UK Racing or atleast some of it off the Betting World Website.. I have an account but dont bet with them. yet i'm able to still watch the feeds.

however that being said i like to Listen to the William Hill Radio. I found the Comments and "tips" much more accurate than from the TT crowd.

EDIT:

Sorry the BW UK Feeds a bit of a trick to get.. Wait for the "watch UK Racing" banner to eventually appear and then click on it. you will need to register again. but once all that kak is over with just bookmark the link and then click on it when ever u want to watch racing.

At work i can watch (if i want) free live sports streams via www.livetv.sx/en/ click on broadcast in the banner & then choose your sport (yes there are popups but click to full screen & its gone or either click on the x's on the ad popups)