It’s the Cheltenham jump racing festival next week and Bet Victor is among the runners and riders as part of a campaign to extend betting’s appeal outside football.
Horse racing is betting’s traditional turf of course but football seems to have taken over. It’s easier to win (or not lose as much) for a start.
So we have a muddy Paul Kaye, who plays ‘Maurice,’ posing as a jockey in a Mastermind-type quiz, courtesy of agency VCCP.
I do find Maurice resistible but this one’s not quite as manic as some of the others – not quite.
MAA creative scale: 6.
For once Bet Victor’s founder Victor Chandler doesn’t make an appearance, unless he’s concealed behind WG Grace’s whiskers. Chandler, who was the first bookie to see the opportunity in offshore betting to avoid betting tax, is an interesting cove.
He was both bookmaker and friend to the late painter Lucian Freud, a rather better painter than punter. But a Freud portrait of Chandler was sold for over £4m.
There’s an interesting tale about Freud and Prince Charles in Geordie Greig’s book on Freud. Apparently Charles once suggested to Freud, via an intermediary, that the two swap paintings. Charles is (or was) a keen amateur artist.
Freud may have been a lousy punter but he wasn’t that daft.
