As Andy Gray sat down last night and had his wife cook his dinner, iron his clothes, do the washing, and…well basically do everything domestic chore that he could think of the phone rang. The bosses at Sky weren’t even ringing to tell him the latest joke about females to be flying around the office.
He was fired, and bang went a 20-year career in a crazy few days for the company. Whilst not completely pertinent to the gambling industry, the fact that Sky’s name has now been dragged through the mud is bad news for a number of reasons.
Not that sport’s fans have a lot of choice but to bow down and worship Lord Murdoch and women would never even think about watching sport, let alone know the offside rule, would they? So if you subtract the women who might take their business away from Sky then it might primarily come from sites coming under the Skybet banner.
It’s not just the little old ladies playing on Skybingo that they need to worry about. As we’ve shown over the past few months, women are gambling in greater numbers than ever and to hang onto this market may start to be crucial.
We contacted Skybet for a quote on the issue but at the time we went to press, no one was available to comment on what has happened.
As far as Gray’s job prospects for the future, we can safely say that the Women’s Institute won’t be inviting him in to do a masterclass for budding young journalists. Far from it. Betfair though are, perhaps surprisingly, holding on to their man.
Spokesman Andy Lulham, said: “Betfair doesn’t tolerate sexism, and we expect others who represent our brand to share similar values.
“We’ve expressed our disappointment to Andy Gray’s representatives about the comments that have been reported in the media over the last 48 hours.
“In light of recent developments we are currently reviewing the situation.”
In terms of a figurehead for the company it’s kind of hard to think why Gray is still a realistic proposition for Betfair. He isn’t on Sky anymore, has been implicated in a sexism scandal, and there may even be more to come out.
We will have any news on the situation as it develops but for now you have to think that Gray may well be on domestic duties at some point in the near future.
