Anybody who placed their gambles based on the "knowledge" of Statto will be feeling both revenge and a disturbing sense of historical gullibility this morning. News broke yesterday that Statto, "real" name Angus Loughran, has been declared bankrupt and, although he claimed that the debts were related to council tax non-payments, it is believed that the man's finances are, shall we say, a touch "delicate".
Spectacular society creation Statto is a highly successful talking head for the betting industry and he was the ideal placement from the perspective of the bookmaking industry as he did as he was told AND his proprietary trading was a random walk to financial oblivion. Perfect.
Statto, educated at Ampleforth College, first came to "fame" when the carefully PR-manicured pseudo-eccentric ran on to the Oval to place a chair for Chris Tavaré, the hilarious "joke" being that the batsman was scoring too slowly for England. Really funny that... The lack of humour could only lead to a link up with Frank Skinner and David Baddiel as they performed a regressed adolescent nonsense of a media presentation - the Henry Normal strata of unfunniness. The "mad" Statto, in his pyjamas, being bullied and ridiculed both at school and by Skinner and Baddiel, presented a clearly obvious target for the bookmaking industry. His victim-based nerdiness and his defensive alter ego would capitulate immediately under a little bit of pressure. Suddenly, Statto is a resident expert of the gambling sector. Channel 4 in England had John McCririck as a disinformational talking head providing the bookmaker's lines while mixing in the odd punters-pal input - "...outrageous, another 8 runner field having a non-runner meaning the each-way only pays out on the first two home. What are the bookmakers up to?". Well, they are paying your wages, John, that's what they are up to. The BBC racing coverage was altogether cleaner and the bookmakers worked long and hard to get their man on the inside. Statto was ideal. How can one not trust that Harry Potter of a buffoon? Well, easily, we sussed the man very early in his "career" and he has provided several very useful nuggets of information over the years via an analysis of his output and his personal psychology - a future post will focus on an outline of the analysis of talking heads. Statto suddenly morphed from clown to "serious" analyst as his public school background came to the fore. The problem for the betting industry with regard to controlled talking heads is that they swiftly become a source of information rather than a source of disinformation. Statto says England will beat New Zealand 5-0 in the current cricket series which, after a 6 wicket defeat and only the fourth ever 10 wicket defeat for England in the first two games, is as good as he gets really.
Statto was always disposable. He based the majority of his "analysis" on a myopic over-focus on the entirely irrelevant statistics. His inability to develop a realistic overview of the markets that he was talking heading led to his proprietary trading being highly dependent on inside information - effectively, the "information" that he was providing on behalf of our friends, the bookies. Taking the piss out of bookmakers is not a valid trading strategy in Europe, as Tony Bloom found out to his personal cost, and there was obviously one glaring weakness in Loughran's trading "strategy". Inside information is only a valid tool if you are one step away from the source of the "information" - everything else is bobbins. The "knowledge" was plugged into our realities by Loughran and his lack of proximity to the source of his verbal "output" was the fundamental flaw in his betting plan, strategy being too generous term to describe Statto's rise and fall. Disinformational talking heads must mix it up in their tilted analysis - Lawrenson's PR job on the PGMOB would become even more ludicrous if he didn't occasionally "admit" that, perhaps for example, Clattenburg "did" get the Bowyer sending off wrong (how far has football sunk when an incident involving Bowyer and Clattenburg - last year's best referee and this year's worst in the Premiership - results in Bowyer acting with dignity and Clattenburg doing the lack of integrity thing?).
Ampleforth to Bowdon was the rise of Loughran. The Manchester courtroom on February 4th was the downfall. The man does not have the funds to service his creditors - apparently Eurosport, Easyodds bookmakers, the Daily Telegraph, ESPN and the BBC (together with his real paymasters) do not pay enough to cover an appalling trading project. Over the years, Loughran has been responsible for the financial losses of huge numbers of gullible market participants, schadenfreude demands that we celebrate the mashing up of this "sports consultant".
In ancient Greece if a man owed money and could not pay, his family were forced into slavery for his creditor. We look forward to seeing Loughran brushing the Old Trafford streets in servitude to the local council :)
© Football Is Fixed/Dietrological
