The Grand National this year will be ‘virtual’ but promises to give all the excitement of the real thing. The development of this impressive digital machine has seen trials during the previous three years and shown a fairly accurate correspondence with the actual race results.
Essentially, it is driven by random number generators which ‘weight’ different outcomes via complex algorithms taking in form, probable weather conditions and so on. Perhaps less exciting is that the virtual race has already been run and recorded for television as ‘live’, the results guarded, it is said, by only 20 people sworn to secrecy.
For bettors who frequent betting shops, virtual racing is nothing new. It’s been up on the wall for many years now, quite a change from the old days when bookies were not allowed even to have television screens. For most viewers it will be a novelty with all the family fun of the real thing. Excited kids, snacks, often more than a little booze. What a good way to fill the time in these days of isolation.
We All Love Our NHS and Carers
We’ve recently enjoyed an outpouring of appreciation for NHS staff, carers and all the lowly paid workers at the front line of maintaining essential services. Very sincere, heart-warming, freely given and costing nothing. Like the Grand National, a celebration of what it is to be British.
Of course, there will always be those cynics who claim that among the people being applauded were many facing deportation post-Brexit. There will always be that miserable minority of lefties and liberals who’ve been going on for years about how the NHS and other public services are grossly underfunded, or how badly some are paid while others grow rich.
How wonderful, therefore. it is to see the whole nation pulling together despite such gloomy naysayers.
The Benevolence of the Gambling Industry
All betting profits from the virtual Grand National will be given to NHS Charities Together (which collectively provides £1 million a day to help the nation’s health and ameliorate underfunding of the NHS). The British Betting and Gaming council, a recent amalgamation of the Association of British Bookmakers and the Remote Gambling Association is focused upon lobbying politicians and recovering from the industry’s negative image of recent years. It is promoting the industry as contributing to the nation’s needs in the time of coronavirus.
BGC Chief Executive Michael Dugher has said: “With the UK understandably and rightly in lockdown, unfortunately the Grand National can’t take place; however the virtual Grand National will be the closest we can get to creating one of those moments when we can all come together in celebration, not just for the world’s greatest sporting event, but for the NHS heroes working on the front line to keep us all safe.”
As part of the ‘deal’, all bets are limited to £10 or £10 each-way. Betting companies will not advertise their services for this event except to existing customers. There will be no competition between different companies but all will offer the same odds. There will be no special offers, free bets or similar enticements associated with this event.
Virtual Images and Reality
Corporate philanthropy has always been an essential contribution to brand value. Some companies do sincerely and practically operate with a core value of social responsibility. At the other extreme, charitable donations, grants and social partnerships are seen as marketing tools. A company’s image can severely impact on profits. Negative image can bring about political pressures such as through tighter regulation and taxation. Advertising and marketing are essentially about image – how important players, including consumers feel attracted or repelled. Image manipulation is a vital function in company development.
It is for the reader to consider what the present case of the betting industries’ generosity amounts to. Though we should add, of course, that with an already negative corporate reputation which holds in some quarters, clearly for betting to continue as normal at a time when national crises are bringing out sacrifice, fortitude and risks in so many would be a public relations disaster.
The idea of watching a cartoon race that has already been run as if it were a real horse race in live time, neatly reflects the differences between corporate image and corporate reality.
New to Gambling?
People who’ve always enjoyed their once-yearly bet on the National will, if they have access, go online and register with a company. For some this will be a gateway to a new experience. Soon after the National people may return to gambling sites, perhaps enticed by the advertisements which will inevitably come their way. Then the offers will entice further – the free spins, the free bets, the multitude of new games to spend money upon.
Children watching cartoon racing for the first time will undoubtedly love it, becoming one of the adults’ pleasure and excitement. A virtual horse race is so similar to a computer game, great fun. Like loot boxes. Products aimed at children which are not classified as gambling have been repeatedly shown by research to often lead to gambling behaviour and addiction.
Locked in and bored, with a few weeks yet to go before a ban on using credit cards for gambling, there is a likelihood that a number of people will run into great financial trouble.
A letter today – to Nigel Huddleston, the UK minister responsible for gambling, and to the BGC – signed by 22 MPs, two Lords and one of the UK’s foremost gambling addiction experts said, “People are at home and are severely restricted, with access to mini-casinos on their laptops or mobile phones.” They called for urgent tight restrictions upon advertising, reduction of stakes on ‘highly dangerous’ slot-like games, ending the VIP scheme which rewards heavy losers with enticements, a mandatory maximum for deposits. They also ‘called on companies to release internal data to independent researchers to help them assess the scale of harm caused by gambling during the coronavirus outbreak compared with normal circumstances.’
That’s in stark contrast to what some would see as the British Betting and Gambling Association’s self-promoting generosity on behalf of the heroic NHS workers.
The Machine Zone 