It was a good day for Ladbrokes and William Hill today, as the Grand National took place at Aintree this afternoon.
Now I’m not a betting man, generally. I have a flutter every so often but The Grand National seems to be just that little bit different.
Maybe it’s the potential for an upset and a 100-1 rank outsider passing the post first, but when you head to your local betting shop on Grand National Day, it’s chock-full.
Rather than the usual collection of slightly nervous, pasty-looking, unshaven men poring over copies of The Racing Post, there were all sorts in there working out which horse to put their 50p each-way bets on.
Betting shops are very different to my first experiences of them 15-odd years ago.
For starters, there’s no smoking any more. Now they’re bright, friendly and full of TV screens showing greyhound races, horse races and Premiership football.
And watching everything happening, it’s really easy to see how people can get hooked on betting.
