Graeme Sampieri had over 50 years of experience as a bookmaker.
Change in the ranks of the bookmakers is a constant reality.
One example of this reality is the scenario unfolding for rails bookmaker Mark Sampieri. Image: Tina Haynes
Mark Sampieri Son Of Graeme Sampieri.
The two were primarily focused on Thoroughbred racing in the State of Victoria. The elder Sampieri passed away in 2018, but the two men are often viewed as the pioneers of Victorian corporate bookmaking and from 2003, they operated as G & M Sampieri Bookmaking.
What passed for a corporate bookmaker back in those days would probably be considered a cottage industry these days, but the family name dates back to the mid-60s.
Online Punting Is Here
Internet wagering is the big change with which the two men had to deal.
When online punting quickly overtook traditional rails bookmakers, the choice was simple. Either adapt, or become irrelevant. With fewer punters turning out at the tracks, the rails bookies needed to adapt to that new reality, along with the growth in sports wagering that has affected every bookie who relies on the racing codes.
The younger Sampieri takes punts for the big metro meetings. He also caters to punters at the country tracks, offering fixed odds betting throughout Australia. To remain relevant, he offers many of the racing bet types, such as Starting Price and Top Fluctuation, for example, subject to some of the same conditions the bigger bookies place on punters looking for top odds and high dividends.
Betmakers Technology Group
As for the current state of the Sampieri operation, it is going online through a partnership with Betmakers Technology Group, LTD.
Betmakers Technology Group is an industry group that provides the software that is the backbone of well-known corporate bookies, including TopSport, bet365, Ladbrokes, Neds and others.
Partnering with a technology solutions provider such as Betmakers will supply Sampieri with the tools and betting platforms to give the appearance that there is little difference between Sampieri Bookmaking and any of the behemoths of the wagering industry.
To give some perspective on all this, it is as though Big Bill Waterhouse himself stopped taking the trolley to the course and was given the keys to the Millennium Falcon.
In the case of Sampieri, punters will now be able to place wagers on a computer or mobile device. It is much easier to open and fund an account, compared to the days when punters were required to download an application form, and then mail the completed form to Sampieri.
That old way of doing things is ironic, as Graeme was sympathetic to rails colleagues were forced out by the new regimes of technology-powered bookies and who often, in his words, “End up without a stamp.”
The most recent reports indicate that Mark Sampieri intended to launch his online bookmaking effort in June of 2020, but we have yet to see this happen.
Betmakers will supply Sampieri with technology platforms that automate many of the tasks no individual bookmaker could otherwise handle, such as trading and pricing.
The big boost for the Sampieri operation, however, will be the ability to take bets on more race meetings than is currently possible.
Sampieri Website
We expect the Sampieri website and mobile offerings, when they do come online, to resemble in many ways the offerings of some of the corporate bookies, although if we were expressing hopes, it would be that the website more closely resembles Ladbrokes and Neds than bet365.
Mark Sampieri can be contacted at:
- Email: mark@sampieri.com.au
- Mobile 0412 279 672
- On course direct: +61 392140018, +61 392140051, +61 392140080