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Phil Bull
Phil Bull (9 April 1910 – 11 June 1989), born West Yorkshire, England, was a professional gambler, racehorse owner and publisher, who founded the Timeform private handicapping system for British horseracing. Since 1948, Timeform have produced performance ratings for every racehorse in Great Britain and, increasingly, internationally. Timeform ratings have become adopted as the British horseracing industry's unofficial, but authoritative, measure of racehorse performance. It was said of Bull in 1976 that "there is no more familiar figure on English racecourses than the stocky, bearded one of Mr Phil Bull". Many racing aphorisms can be attributed to Bull, such as "at the racecourse, keep your eyes open and your ears closed". Early life Phil Bull was born in Hemsworth, West Yorkshire, the son of a miner and a schoolteacher and was educated at the local Grammar School. In 1931 he graduated from Leeds University with a degree in mathematics. This mathematical grounding, as well a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a Metropolitan counties of England, metropolitan and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and east, South Yorkshire and Derbyshire to the south, Greater Manchester to the south-west, and Lancashire to the west. The city of Leeds is the largest settlement. The county has an area of and a population of 2.3 million, making it the fourth-largest ceremonial county by population. The centre of the county is urbanised, and contains the city of Leeds in the north-east, the city of Bradford in the north-west, Huddersfield in the south-west, and Wakefield in the south-east. The outer areas of the county are rural. For local government purposes the county comprises five metropolitan boroughs: City of Bradford, Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, City of Leeds, Leeds, and City of Wakefield, Wakefield, which collaborate through West Yorkshire Combined Authority. The cou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Season (sport)
In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of September. In other team sports, like association football or basketball, it is generally from August or September to May although in some countries – such as Northern Europe, North America or East Asia – the season for oudoor summer sports starts in the spring and finishes in autumn, mainly due to weather conditions encountered during the winter. A year can often be broken up into several distinct sections (sometimes themselves called seasons). These are: a preseason, usually a series of exhibition games played for training purposes; a regular season, the main period of the league's competition; the postseason, a playoff tournament played against the league's top teams to determine the league's champion; and the offseason, the time whe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flat Racing
Horse racing is an equestrianism, equestrian performance activity, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its basic premise – to identify which of two or more horses is the fastest over a set course or distance – has been mostly unchanged since at least classical antiquity. Horse races vary widely in format, and many countries have developed their own particular traditions around the sport. Variations include restricting races to particular breeds, running over obstacles, running over different distances, running on different track surfaces, and running in different horse gait, gaits. In some races, horses are assigned different weights to carry to reflect differences in ability, a process known as handicapping. While horses are sometimes raced purely for sport, a major part of horse racing's interest and economic importance is in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Betfair
Betfair is a British Gambling, gambling company founded in 2000. Its product offering includes betting exchange, sports betting, online casino, online poker, and online bingo. Business operations are led from its headquarters in London, alongside satellite offices in Ceuta, Dublin, Leeds, and Malta. In February 2016, Betfair merged with Paddy Power to create Flutter Entertainment. History The company was founded in June 2000, by Andrew Black (gambling entrepreneur), Andrew Black and Edward Wray. Softbank purchased 23% of Betfair in early April 2006, valuing the company at GBP, £1.5 billion. In December 2006, Betfair completed the purchase of the horseracing publishing company Timeform (which traded under the name Portway Press Ltd). Betfair was the first betting company to sponsor an English football team, featuring on the kit of Fulham F.C., Fulham in the 2002–03 season before the Gambling Act 2005 prohibited the industry from advertising on television and radio. In March ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Betting Exchange
A betting exchange is a marketplace for customers to bet on the outcome of discrete events. Betting exchanges offer the same opportunities to bet as a bookmaker with a few differences. Gamblers can buy (also known as "back") and sell (also known as "lay") the outcome, and they can trade in real-time throughout the event, either to cut their losses or lock in profit. Bookmaker operators generate revenue by offering less efficient odds. Betting exchanges normally generate revenue by charging a small commission on winning bets. History The first betting exchanges were Matchbook, flutter.com and Betfair. Flutter and Betfair merged in 2001 with Betfair chosen as the primary betting exchange. The flutter.com site ceased operations in January 2002. Since then Betfair has maintained a leading position in the betting exchange market. BETDAQ (which also traded as the 'Ladbrokes Exchange') is believed to be the second largest betting exchange and it had an estimated 7% share of the be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dick Whitford
Dick, Dicks, or Dick's may refer to: Media * ''Dicks'' (album), a 2004 album by Fila Brazillia * Dicks (band), a musical group * ''Dick'' (film), a 1999 American comedy film * "Dick" (song), a 2019 song by Starboi3 featuring Doja Cat * '' Dicks: The Musical'', a 2023 American black comedy film Names * Dick (nickname), an index of people nicknamed Dick * Dick (surname) * Dicks (surname) * Dick, a diminutive for Richard * Dicks, the pen name of Luxembourgish poet Edmond de la Fontaine (1823–1891) * Dicks., botanical author abbreviation for James Dickson (1738–1822) Places * Dicks Butte, a mountain in California * Dick, Michigan, an unincorporated community Other uses * ''Dick'' (slang), a dysphemism for the penis as well as a pejorative epithet * Dick's Drive-In, a Seattle, Washington-based fast food chain * Dick's Sporting Goods, a major sporting goods retailer in the United States * Dick's Sporting Goods Park, a soccer stadium in Denver, Colorado * Detective, in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the world's countries participated, with many nations mobilising all resources in pursuit of total war. Tanks in World War II, Tanks and Air warfare of World War II, aircraft played major roles, enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, first and only nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II is the List of wars by death toll, deadliest conflict in history, causing World War II casualties, the death of 70 to 85 million people, more than half of whom were civilians. Millions died in genocides, including the Holocaust, and by massacres, starvation, and disease. After the Allied victory, Allied-occupied Germany, Germany, Allied-occupied Austria, Austria, Occupation of Japan, Japan, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crazy Gang (comedy Group)
The Crazy Gang were a group of British entertainers, formed in the early 1930s. In the mature form the group's six men were Bud Flanagan, Chesney Allen, Jimmy Nervo, Teddy Knox, Charlie Naughton and Jimmy Gold. The group achieved considerable domestic popularity and were a favourite of the royal family, especially King George VI. Formation Although George Black is often credited with the formation of the Crazy Gang, the start was more complicated. In 1931, three double acts (Nervo and Knox, Naughton and Gold and Billy Caryll and Hilda Mundy) were tentatively booked at the London Palladium. This caused Black to consider cancelling one of the couples. Nervo and Knox had a technique of entering other acts, and Black was persuaded to overcome the difficulty by letting this happen. The show, which was called ''Crazy Week'' opened on 30 November 1931. Other Crazy Weeks followed with Flanagan and Allen added. The name Crazy Gang was introduced in a show called ''The Big Craz ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bud Flanagan
Bud Flanagan (born Chaim Reuben Weintrop, 14 October 1896 – 20 October 1968) was a British music hall and vaudeville entertainer and comedian, and later a television and film actor. He was best known as being one half of the comedy and music act Flanagan and Allen with his partner Chesney Allen. Flanagan was famous as a wartime entertainer and his achievements were recognised when he was appointed an Order of the British Empire, Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1959. Family background Flanagan was born in Whitechapel, in the East End of London. His parents, Wolf Weintrop (1856–1932) and Yetta (Kitty) Weintrop (1856–1935) were Polish Jews who were married in the city of Radom, Poland, and fled to Łódź on their wedding day to avoid a pogrom. Wolf and Yetta Weintrop intended to escape to the "New World" from Eastern Europe – they paid for a ticket to New York City, New York, but a dishonest ticket agent gave them a ticket to London. In London, Wo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Hill (businessman)
William Hill (16 July 1903 – 15 October 1971) was the founder of William Hill, the British bookmaking firm. Born in Birmingham, Hill left school at the age of twelve to work on his uncle's farm. While working in a factory in Birmingham he started collecting illegal bets from local people on his motorcycle. In 1919, Hill joined the Royal Irish Constabulary (Cork East Riding - and is documented on the RIC records as such) as a driver while underage (16) and was stationed in Mallow, County Cork, Ireland. After the hopeless failure of his first foray into bookmaking, he moved to London in 1929 where he started taking bets on greyhounds before opening an illicit gambling den in Jermyn Street in 1934. He exploited a loophole which allowed credit or postal betting but not cash. In 1938 he was the joint owner of Lone Keel who went on to win the 1938 English Greyhound Derby. In 1944 he produced the first fixed-odds football coupon. In 1954 he reversed his business into ''Holder's In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bookmaker
A bookmaker, bookie, or turf accountant is an organization or a person that accepts and pays out bets on sporting and other events at agreed-upon odds In probability theory, odds provide a measure of the probability of a particular outcome. Odds are commonly used in gambling and statistics. For example for an event that is 40% probable, one could say that the odds are or When gambling, o .... History The first bookmaker, Harry Ogden, stood at Newmarket in 1795, although similar activities had existed in other forms earlier in the eighteenth century. Following the Gaming Act 1845, the only gambling allowed in the United Kingdom was at race tracks. The introduction of special excursion trains meant that all classes of society could attend the new racecourses opening across the country. Runners working for bookmakers would collect bets in Clock bag, clock bags. Cash flowed to the bookmakers who employed bodyguards against protection gangs operating within the vast cro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
