[AusRace] GUYS, SPORTSBET AND EVANS HAVE GONE WOKE!

[Race Stats]

Hi Len,
I’m so sick of all this woke business!
On another issue, you cannot trust Sportsbet’s final fixed prices at all.
I place significant bets on a horse with 1 or 2 seconds to go, and then they close the race with higher odds on that horse whilst all other horses remain at the same odds!
How can this happen, it’s like they are taunting me or trying to draw customers via false odds.
It happens so often that I’m going to stop using them, because there is false or underhanded information being displayed.
Lindsay

From: Racing <racing-bounces at ausrace.com> On Behalf Of L.B.Loveday
Sent: Thursday, 23 November 2023 7:26 AM
To: racing at ausrace.com
Subject: [AusRace] GUYS, SPORTSBET AND EVANS HAVE GONE WOKE!


This article is from the November 23 issue of Australian Financial Review Digital Edition. To subscribe, visit https://www.afr.com.


There are a few corners of the cultural landscape which still exist to craft and propagate toxic stereotypes for the Great Aussie Male. But they are dwindling.

Even Pat Cummins has turned cricket woke, standing against dirty sponsors and hosting Simon and Garfunkel listening parties. Look how that turned out!

One last bastion has been this country’s gambling companies, which have spent decades plastering TV, radio and social media with low-rent ads, tailored to blokes aged 18 to 35.

In an incredible twist, even the bookies have fallen. At a recent internal presentation, foreign-owned Sportsbet informed staff about some new language guidelines. Under the banner, ‘‘ Words matter’’ , the powerpoint slide laid out some new ways to address employees at the company

Staff should no longer use ‘‘ Hi guys, lads, gents’’ . It’s been replaced by, ‘‘ Hi everyone, hi all, hi folks’’ . ‘‘ She’ ’ and ‘‘ he’ ’ are out, ‘‘ they’ ’ is in, that’s ‘‘ unless you know their pronouns’’ .

In another nod to our rapidly shifting gender mores, Sportsbet employees were told not to use ‘‘ mother’ ’ or ‘‘ father’’ , but ‘‘ parents’’ . And ‘‘ wife’ ’ and ‘‘ husband’ ’ is to be replaced by ‘‘ partner’ ’ or ‘‘ significant other’’ .

Gambling execs are even attuned to the decolonisation within language circles, asking employees to retire the words ‘‘ whitelist’ ’ and ‘‘ blacklist’’ , and instead use ‘‘ allow list’ ’ and ‘‘ deny list’’ . (White = good, black = bad, reinforces negative stereotypes)

‘‘ We want people working at Sportsbet to know they can thrive no matter who they are, and it is important that we are having conversations that encourage understanding and inclusivity,’’ a spokesman said.

It’s all pretty standard stuff that has been sweeping workplaces, usually pushed by overzealous ESG-types looking for problems where they don’t exist. Even BHP underwent two updates this year, retiring ‘‘ bosses’ ’ for ‘‘ supervisors’’ , ‘‘ love interest’ ’ for ‘‘ boyfriend/girlfriend’’ , and our favourite, dumping ‘‘ brownout’ ’ for ‘‘ under frequency load shed’’ .

But gee, this going-on at the Barni Evans-run Sportsbet, the country’s largest online bookmaker, really takes the cake.

In 2015, Sportsbet opened a market to bet on the new name for newly transitioned Caitlyn Jenner, running with the tagline: ‘‘ Fair play to Bruce, it takes a lot of balls to em ... cut off your balls.’’ Sportsbet apologised after an online outcry.

Or during the pandemic, Sportsbet ran a TV ad which featured two fellas whipping each other with towels, including the line, ‘‘ The bloke’s nearly as whipped as Prince Harry’’ . It fell foul of the ad standards bureau, with Sportsbet trying to argue with a straight face that the regulator was wrong to claim it was a reference to being ‘‘ pussy-whipped’’ .

Midwits at News Corp like to screech that ‘‘ go woke, go broke’’ . But we’re not sure gambling addicts placing a bet on Manchester United versus Everton this weekend will be worried about correct pronoun use.


Copyright © 2023 Australian Financial Review
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