Leisure punters should be aware that leading London-based bookmaker Premierbet is no longer in business and, although visitors to their website are being told that the site is "unavailable for essential maintenance work", the truth is that the company is not available for the essential payment of its debt obligations to clients.
Football Is Fixed have warned readers about this company previously (see: http://footballisfixed.blogspot.com/2007/01/bettor-beware.html) and it is no surprise to our Trading Team that this highly unprofessional operation has entered oblivion.
Premierbet's parent company is Interactive Gaming Holdings plc (IGH) who are listed on the AIM in London. The company stock was suspended on August 17th and yet the bookmaker continued accepting bets over last weekend in the full knowledge that any trades enacted and any monies deposited were to disappear into the black hole of IGH's illiquid bank accounts. IGH were seeking interim funding from General Capital Venture Finance Limited but the venture people pulled the plug on August 15th and, despite company claims, there is no other saviour waiting in the wings.
Premierbet were previously in financial uproar in 2005 when IGH bought it for a nominal fee after the bookmaker had been mismanaged for years by self-styled industry mogul, Tony Bloom (see below for our assessment of Bloom). From day one, there was no coordinated decision on whether the new operation was going to trade at the cutting edge of the gambling sector by offering accounts to winning professional traders or whether the concern was merely going to cream slices of profit off the leisure betting punter. By gyrating between these two options, Premierbet ended up offering inappropriate levels of service to both pros and amateurs. Furthermore, the company was heavily dependent on accepting bets illegally from American clients and, when the Bush administration started arresting British executives for such behaviour, Premierbet's profits and shareprice plummeted. The industry giants always disliked Bloom's operations and continued to target Premierbet after his loss of the company with the result that Premierbet repeatedly developed highly imbalanced trading books on events with the inevitable ensuing losses. Now lets make this clear, the system is so tilted in favour of bookmaking operations that only incompetence of the highest degree may explain an inability to retain market presence and Premierbet were astounding in their degree of unprofessionalism. This culture dated back to Bloom's megalomaniacal style when in charge of the company and, as all buyout merchants understand, a company culture is the most difficult aspect to adjust after takeover.
In a competitive capitalist system, companies obviously must suffer the consequences of a lack of financial rigour but it is only the gambling sector and the illegal black and grey market sectors that provide no comeback for customers who are financially compromised by bankruptcy. There will be no assessment of creditors losses or needs and the directors of this shoddy operation will be able to walk away prior to reinventing themselves in some other form to be able to fleece the uninformed all over again. This is something that Britain's new Gambling Act ostentatiously fails to address - gambling winnings and banked money are not recoverable under law. The upshot of this tawdry state of affairs is that the sector will continue to attract the most abusive type of business charlatan.
The word charlatan rather neatly brings us onto the operator that is Anthony Grant Bloom. Bloom is a criminal although this is not an entirely unbiased opinion as he still owes monies to several members of the Dietrological team. Bloom established himself as a broker who illegally accepted bets for the underground Asian betting markets in the mid-nineties. Through the links that he established in Thailand and Singapore while working with Gibraltar-based Victor Chandler International bookmakers, he provided professionals with access to the Far East markets while treating such a role as the creative buying of information. Bloom has built up considerable assets from this entirely illegal operation and no taxes were ever paid on these illicit earnings. Bloom continued offering consultancy services to Premierbet after the takeover by IGH and there is a certain air of jollity around our trading room this morning that the Lizard has finally got his comeuppance. The Lizard is Bloom's poker playing nickname (he plays professionally) and, as a final act of revenge, we would like to take this opportunity to undermine his effectiveness in this area of his slimy existence. On two occasions, Bloom reached the final of the Ladbrokes Million poker tournament. On the latter occasion, he was virtually assured of victory if he merely played the probabilities but his addiction to flair resulted in him blowing the opportunity by a ridiculous bluff. The first time that he reached the final was more revealing however. All people have a tick. This involuntary bodily response to lying is utilised in negotiations, interviews, by the police and by poker players. Bloom's tick is a tremor at the corner of his eye which reveals itself whenever he is taking the piss at the poker table. All poker professionals should share and use this information so that Bloom's criminal gains are slowly but repeatedly removed from his grubby grasp in the years ahead.
Wow! That's better!!
Finally, we would advise all leisure traders to frequently check Sportsbook Review (SBR) (http://www.sportsbookreview.com/). This website focuses on the corrupt bookmakers in the global betting markets and warns readers of crises before such crises impact upon the bank accounts of the gambler. Premierbet were on SBR's Black List for a considerable period before the issue of bankruptcy came to light and one angry punter writes "I can't understand how they are allowed to go on trading. My account is still open, and I have £1500 credit still showing. Can you advise me on anything I can do? They are ignoring my emails,and phone calls are directed to a London number which is constantly on answer machine."
IGH and Premierbet claimed to provide customers "with a complete gaming experience offering seamless integration between traditional sports betting and its casino products."
What it actually offered was primary level corruption.
Update: Premierbet has just returned online on Wednesday August 21st at 15:00 GMT but there are no prices available for current events. At IGH, Mitchell Petchenik and Robert Spriddell have both resigned, as executive vice president and non-executive director respectively, with immediate effect. Additionally, Arbuthnot Securities Limited have resigned as the company's nominated adviser and broker with immediate effect. Do not deposit any monies with this bunch of cowboys.
Update #2: It is no surprise that Premierbet is once again offline on Thursday am. RIP.
© Football Is Fixed/Dietrological
