Taking bets

November 2009

If in Melbourne for the 2009 Spring Racing Carnival you may have noticed Lisa Eskander (BA 2003, BCom 2003) on the rails at the Flemington race track. She was the glamorous brunette standing near the board bearing her name.

Ms Eskander was an “on the rails” bookie at the Carnival. “On the rails” is the coveted location for bookmakers because that is where the biggest bets are made. “I’ve been fortunate to be on the rails for the past few years during the Spring Racing Carnival”, says the Monash alumna. “But most of the year I am off the rails [in the betting ring].”

She launched her solo bookmaking career on New Year’s Day 2006 and has never looked back. “It was really different to be running my own book,” says the woman who has spent much of her summer childhood on the racetrack learning from her father, Michael Eskander.

Ms Eskander used the nous she developed while earning pocket money alongside her now bookie brother Alan Eskander (BCom 2002). She also draws on the skills learnt through her Economics and Commerce studies at Monash.

“The betting ring is a market,” she says. “I don’t think anything translates that practically, but the study helps.” Based a stone’s throw away from the Monash Caulfield campus, Ms Eskander operates her business seven days a week. On weekdays she is at her trackside office at Caulfield and on weekends she is where the horse races are being run. Punters can place bets via her website, on the phone and in person. The number of bets placed on the phone and in the betting ring, are roughly equal. About 20 per cent come via her website.

You may ask: how does one become a bookmaker? “You learn on the job,” she says. “You need to have liquid assets and cash flow. I am somewhere in the middle of the small bookies and the corporate bookmakers like dad and my brother who are based out of the Northern Territory. Like all business people, it’s always with me, on my mind.”

After study, Ms Eskander worked in human resources for two law firms before joining her father in the racing fraternity. Self-made Michael Eskander migrated from Egypt. As a young man he was enticed away from life as a bank clerk by bookie Norm Cain, whose staff used to deposit “piles of money”.

Lisa Eskander says she has learnt to take small steps. Her plans for the future include consolidating her client base and eventually expanding into sports betting.

Links:

Lisa Eskander's website