He could barely walk. But if you walk into a Ladbrokes shop, it is clear that most of the betting is on horse-racing. People will walk in after their shifts, ask for a slip, fill it and hand it over with the money. They then watch the monitor with bated breath to see if 'Fortune's Favourite' lives up to its name before walking back dejectedly. Those who bet on cricket form a slender minority, even when a World Cup is on.
Soccer is much more hot.
Ladbrokes, said to be the world's biggest bookmaker and part of the Hilton hotel group, operates 2,000 high street shops in the UK and Ireland, where betting was legalised in the early sixties. Nowadays, the average Englishman doesn't have to stir out of his room to place a bet.