Hamster races soothe restless bettors as foot-and-mouth slows action
By Beth Gardiner, Associated Press, 03/08/01
LONDON -- Horse racing is barely back after a one-week suspension, its premier event has been postponed indefinitely, and major international rugby matches are being called off. With an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease leaving British sports in disarray, what's a gambler to do?
Well, at least the hamsters are running.
In this nation of inveterate bettors, the wagering world is getting creative -- or maybe a little desperate -- as a severe outbreak of the livestock ailment has quieted the action at the gambling parlors that dot the streets of most major British cities.
One Internet betting site is offering hamster races to keep bettors happy until the schedule of more well-established sports returns to normal.
"We've been running hamsters in these little dragsters," said Ed Pownall, a spokesman for the online company, Blue Square. "You put an exercise wheel in the middle of a 10-inch-long dragster. As they run in the wheel it moves the thing forward."
The hamsters race in a small studio in north London, and the action is broadcast live on the company's Web site.
Blue Square has been taking from 300 to 350 bets for each contest -- compared to several thousand for the average horse race -- but Pownall said about 2,000 people have logged on to view each race.
"It's just been fun for people, to get them through the day without the horse racing," he said.
The rodents run six at once along a 30-foot track -- so far, the fastest time is 38 seconds. On Friday, the winners of each of the week's four races will face one another in a tournament showdown.
Horse racing was suspended for a week because of fears that transporting the animals through the countryside from race to race could spread the highly contagious foot-and-mouth disease.
The suspension ended Wednesday, but many individual events are still being called off, including the Cheltenham National Hunt Festival, the most prestigious event in European jump racing. Three games in the Six Nations rugby tournament have also been postponed.
Fortunately, the British racing drought comes during a busy soccer week, and foreign horse racing has picked up some of the wagering slack.
And in a land where people regularly try their luck betting on everything from politics to literary prizes to plot twists in popular soap operas, there's no shortage of offbeat gambling options.
Betting houses are offering 10-1 odds that Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labor Party will win a coming general election, and bets on a weeklong celebrity edition of the reality television show "Big Brother" are also proving popular.
"Betting shop customers generally are a pretty resilient bunch," said Andy Clifton, a spokesman for the bookmaking chain Ladbrokes. "If they want to have a bet, they're going to find something to bet on."
