The Demise of Blue Square

As of today Blue Square Ltd has ceased trading as a bookmaker. My understanding is that Betfair purchased the company for the customer database and made everyone redundant.


I had the best part of five years working for Blue Square so on a personal level it's disappointing to see what was once a thriving business basically get run into the ground.


I learned a tremendous amount about the industry during my time there. I met a lot of people that have become very good friends and will no doubt remain so in the future. I also worked with a number of extremely talented people, people I was fortunate enough to glean information from, people who had time to teach and explain things that were not previously apparent to me. It was when I first started to show a profit from my own punting.


It was probably the only job I ever had where I actually enjoyerd getting up in the morning (hungover) and going into work. The characters the office had were second to none.


In the early days, there was Harris who every Sunday night had a bigger liability on Tiger Woods than Blue Square did. He traded golf better than anyone else, he came to work to pay his rent, he traded to get the cake.


Then there was Marco "cashpoint" Camilleri, who I watched make a fortune arbing and then work his way up to being in my opinion one of the best football traders in the country. Although he's not in the country anymore, because his talent was such he was headhunted by the Hong Kong Jockey club and is no doubt still adding bundles to the coffers.


Dave Burns would provide the jokes, Dom Poyntz and Ian Stocks would abuse any and all offers our competitors had. I recall one day ToteSport offering 10% back on all loses on horse racing. So to nick a few quid, Dom would have the max bet on any horse that he could lay on the exchange at the same price. I recall his dismay at not being able to pick a loser. Everything he touched won. He broke even.


Then there was Dazzler, a legend. I doubt there has ever been a sporting event that Dazzler did not know about. Leighton was the same, a top talented Horse racing trader and a very good friend of mine. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of the game although as he says so correctly himself, "He's not so good with the fillies".


Then there were the few that weren't so good. I've never met a poorer man than The Juice before. He never had any money, he didn't even own a fridge, he still kept his bottle of milk on the windowsill.


Juice was the oldest member of staff, he had Kevin Keagan permmed hair and if there was a favourite that ran without carrying his money then something was seriosuly wrong.


Con too, was great entertainment. He lived off £1 pizzas from the chicken shop across the road and come payday he'd have £800 on an afternoon bags race, do or die. Every month it was die. Even if it won, that would only mean a bigger bet on the next race.


Crazy Dom was some sight too. I think he's made a career out of doing his conkers. I remember his fondess of exchange poker. He just couldn't leave it alone. One particular day he had won a few hundred quid, and I said to him, "Look you're going on holiday tomorrow, stop playing now and you've got a bit of extra spending money". He agreed.


When I returned from a break there he was playing again, sweat dripping from his brow and about a grand in the hole. I asked what he was doing and it turned out he'd logged into his Dad's account to try and win him some money seeing as he was running so good. The lads had a good laugh at that one, can you imagine the conversation when he got home? "Hey Dom, how was your day?" "Really good thanks Dad, ... you had a stinker though".


During this time things were going well, but in my eyes the downward spiral started when the company changed direction. Now I'm not against change but there is no point changing something that is not broke.


The first mistake was letting the trading director go. Steve Tucker was a genius. He's not dead so I'm sure he still is a genius, just not for Blue Square anymore. He knew the industry inside out. Could trade any sport and spot value a mile off. My best guess is that Steve told the hierechy that their changes were unwanted and that was the end of him.


It's all very well getting rid of people, but to replace them like they did with non industry people was a calamity.


They employed a guy called Andy Wright whose qualifications were that his brother was a trader for Ladbrokes. He was meant to be a modern manager, in the end the firm couldn't wait to get rid of him as his obnoxious talentless style alienated virtually everyone that worked there. He went to Stan James where I'm sure he was found out and I understand he's blagging it at Ladbrokes at the moment. Awful guy, nobody liked him and certainly nobody respected him.


The call centre needed improving apparently, so they employed a "modern manager" called Jamie Mclellan. I dubbed him the "Google manager" because that's where he got his ideas from. The guy just spent money on pointless exercises trying to proove his worth. He never had one solid idea, was clueless about the industry and was just trying to implement things he'd picked up at Vodafone.


You know you are in trouble when the manager wants to talk about praise sandwiches rather than margins and equity.


As I said before there was an abundance of talent, people like Mark Wilson, when he put up his Rugby League prices the rest of the industry took note. We had many a coup off the back of his knowledge of that sport. Then there was Chris James who could price up a full football coupon 100% accurately off the top of his head on the train journey to work. On the other side of the coin though there was some tat too. The Rugby trader, Burns I think his name was, well he couldn't trade a Panini football sticker let alone a sporting event.


Then there was Dillip. God only knows how often that mincer was bent over before they allowed him to trade a darts match.


I understand change is needed, we have to change to move with the times in whatever industry or market we are in. The changes Blue Square made were poor though. Marketing teams straight out of university who had no idea what the punter wanted. Mistake after mistake being made.


Other companies have done it too. Look at William Hill since Ralph Topping has taken over. They spend their time working on acronyms. H.O.M.E of betting and rubbish like that. Victor too, claiming to be top price on most Premiership matches. They won't lay a bet though, and that's what the punter actually wants. Don't waste your time coming up with gimmicks, employ traders who are good, make them stand by their price and lay a chunky bet.


That is what the punters want it's that simple. If Blue Square had let their talented traders trade, they would have made money.


It is a shame that the firm has closed, and I hope that my friends are quick to find further employment, one thing for sure is that there is a lot of talent now available.