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The Voice Line / the cost
the channels own price
What the call itself costs
The channel has a price of its own, and no operator prints it because the operator does not charge it. It is the hold time before a human answers and the minutes the call runs, and where the number is a charged one, it is billed by the minute.
Desk spec
- mean call
- 6.4 min
- mean hold
- 3.1 min
- per-minute charge
- 0.50
- call cost
- 3.20
- hold cost
- 1.55
- total on the line
- 4.75
the price read aloudThe spoken price, obtained after a hold. Across 1,200 matched bets it was worse than the screen in 408 and worse by a mean 2.7%.
the recordingThe record of what was said, kept for a fixed window. Of 96 disputes it decided 71, and 46 of those against the caller.
the channel costHold time plus call time. A mean 9.5 minutes on the line, or 4.75 where a number is billed at 0.50 a minute.
Direct answerA telephone bet costs time before it costs money. A mean call runs 6.4 minutes and opens with a mean 3.1-minute hold; where the number is billed at 0.50 a minute that is 3.20 for the call and 1.55 for the hold, or 4.75 on the line before a stake is placed.
the channel cost of one call
hold, before an answer 3.1 min
call 6.4 min
total on the line 9.5 min
at 0.50 a minute
hold 1.55
call 3.20
total 4.75
the same 4.75 against a 42.00 mean stake
is 11.3% of the stake before the market
has been priced at all
Two kinds of number
A freephone betting number moves the cost to the operator, and a charged number moves it to the caller. A number that is free from a landline but charged from a mobile splits the two, and the reader on a mobile is calling the charged one. None of this appears in the price of a bet, because it is not the bet.
The hold is the part a reader can reduce: a call made when the line is quiet opens with a shorter hold, and a call made in the minutes before a busy race opens with a longer one.