Trade Fair News Manny Bernstein
MANNY BERNSTEIN WAS established in 1977 and at one time had 32 shops and almost as many racecourse pitches. Next year will mark the tenth year since they sold their shops and pitches to focus on their telephone betting business, early prices and hedging service. Industry veteran Tony Nicholls
That, tied in with the customer service and our professionalism, will hopefully keep us ahead of everyone else. “Football has always been a
started with Manny Bernstein in 1991, when they had just six shops, and stayed until 2001. When the Don Noble Group, headed by Richard Noble, bought the Manny Bernstein credit operation in 2006, Tony returned on a consultancy basis. As reported in the previous
issue of BOS Magazine, Manny Bernstein have signed an agreement with OpenBet Retail to supply their early price service to OpenBet tills for those customers with ISIS screens. “We also provide the AbetA
till download,” says Tony. “We offer that service to bookmakers who take the AbetA EPOS system in their shops. “And we’ve recently been accepted to provide the Alphameric till download for those who have ISIS SIS in their shops. “We’re looking at expanding
that side and we’re in discussions to hopefully offer other downloads. “We try to offer a good service
to the independent bookmaker. We’ve got experience of that side ourselves so we know what they look for. “We’re always making sure
massive market and I believe it always will be, but with Sky Sports diversifying into things like darts and snooker, we’re getting more bets on those. “Tennis is up and coming as
well. It especially helps with the likes of Andy Murray and other British sportsmen gaining prominence and becoming household names, so people are more aware of them and they want to follow them. Anything that a British sportsman does well is an opportunity for a betting opportunity.” Matthew reports that the company’s hedging service continues to thrive, even though independents are enduring tough times. “At the moment it’s still
Manny Bernstein team (l to r) Tony Nicholls, Matthew Partridge, Dee Rance and Richard Noble.
That’s the biggest bugbear to every independent. People are laying their own bets and they can do it at home just as easily as picking up a phone, so we’re always trying to look for new areas and new opportunities to entice people to come to us. “Coming to us gives them a
doing well,” he says. “Inevitably it’s slowing down – as I believe it is for the whole industry – especially with online gambling.
IT’S BEEN A celebratory year for Sign Specialists – 50 years as a limited company. And the Redditch-based fi rm is still in the founding family’s hands with Richard Tisdale, son of the founder, at the helm. It is also just over a year
personal service as well; that’s where the professionalism and customer service comes into effect. When people are just sitting at the end of a terminal they’ve got no point
Sign Specialists
that we’re on top of all the price changes to make sure the customer doesn’t lose out and that their margins are as good as they can be.” In addition to till downloads,
a full range of early and ante- post prices and a fl exible hedging service, Manny Bernstein also provide a help and advice line and can create bespoke websites. Matthew Partridge is the
man who oversees the daily service and reckons that Manny Bernstein price up over 280 different markets at various times. “We diversify into a large
since Sign Specialists acquired Diamond Signs, whose co- founder Ian McClair joined the company as an accounts director.
the racing and betting industry to Sign Specialists, whose core business includes the likes of Boots, Jaguar Land Rover, Kia, Lloyds Pharmacy, Marstons, Budgens, Londis and many other ‘blue chip’ high street brands. “It’s another string to our
range of sports and we try to cover as many aspects of the betting opportunities as possible.
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bow,” says Ian. “It’s gone fantastically well. The Betfred acquisition of the Tote has cemented everything and we’re going from strength to strength.” The acquisition saw Sign Specialists take on a large proportion of the re-brand of the Tote to Betfred. Says Ian: “With the
Diamond Signs has added
amalgamation of Diamond Signs and Sign Specialists we were already doing a great deal of Betfred work. However, with the Tote acquisition came approximately 550 shops. The main criteria was that they required them all to be completed within four weeks, so it was virtually impossible for one company to do that so it was split among four other sign companies. “Sign Specialists had a large
chunk, as they also manufactured all of the generic components such as the projecting signs and vinyls which were then distributed to the other companies, with the rest divided into four equal shares. It was all completed within the allocated time schedule. Sign Specialists did approximately 150 shops – surveyed, manufactured and installed with time to spare.” Besides Betfred, Sign Specialists work for a number of smaller independents. They have manufactured signage for many fl agship LBOs including London bookmaker McDonnell Bookmakers – they’ve done fi ve McDonnell shops to date and
Picture: Mary Pitt
of contact, whereas with us they’ve got someone to speak to and talk with, so it’s more of an interactive scenario for the customer.”■
For further information please contact Matthew Partridge Tel: 0800 821821
Email: tradingroom@manny-
bernstein.co.uk www.mannybernstein.co.uk
have the latest in production – and Bootle’s Turf Betting, who have just opened their latest, and are working on the re-brand of another well-known high street LBO chain. Sign Specialists offer a complete signage service from design to manufacture, installation, project management and maintenance – the epitome of a “one stop shop”. Ian McClair was among the
most familiar faces at this year’s Trade Fair. “This is my third year at Wolverhampton and the eighth at the Betting Show,” he said.
anything new this year; we’re here because we want to keep Sign Specialists synonymous with the betting industry. It’s good to renew acquaintances with so many familiar faces that we’ve not seen since last year.”■
For further information please contact
Ian McClair Tel: 07734 387378
Email:
ian.mcclair@sign-spe-
cialists.co.uk www.sign-specialists.co.uk
BOS Magazine November/December 2011 31
“We’re not really showcasing
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