Pam Sharman has worked for Totesport for almost 30 years, starting as a Saturday counter assistant at age 14. She now leads Totesport's rails pitches and credit clubs operations. Sharman believes women face a challenge in the betting industry due to a preconception that women lack the logical thinking for bookmaking. However, she feels respected by her peers as more women prove successful. Sharman enjoys the challenge of her job but dislikes it when it rains, as everything gets wet.

1. All week we have focused on women
at the forefront of the on- and
off-course betting industry. The
series concludes with Jessica
Lamb talking to Totesport’s
rails rep Pam Sharman
12 Friday, July 18, 2008 racingpost.co.uk
WOMEN IN BETTING
T
HE helter-skelter lifestyle of
an on-course bookmaker is
not for the faint of heart but
Pam Sharman embraces it,
deeming every day an
adventure and a new challenge.
Essex-born Sharman, who has
devoted nearly 30 years to working
for the Tote, was thrust to the fore of
their relaunch and expansion plans in
2004 when taking up the reins of
Gary Wiltshire’s old rails pitches
under the Totesport banner.
Having built up a good repertoire
with the on-course clientele in her
position at the head of Totesport’s
credit clubs, it came as no surprise
that her flawless reputation saw her
selected to promote their new
venture, a decision the 42-year-old is
grateful for.
She says: “Four years ago when the
Tote decided to branch out they
bought all of Gary Wiltshire’s pitches
and went back to the rails.
“I had been running the credit clubs
at the racecourses for around 20 years
and, as a result, had become very
SP-orientated. So Joe Scanlon, the
managing director, asked me to be the
new figurehead for our rails pitches.
“I jumped at the chance. Finally,
after 20 years, I got let out!”
Sharman grew up in Leytonstone,
east London, and began working for
the Tote at 14 as a Saturday counter
assistant at their New Bridge Street
office in the City.
She became a full-time operator
after leaving school and in 1985 was
promoted to southern area manager
for the credit clubs.
She progressed to the dizzy heights
of national operations manager,
tending to the highest concentration
of UK credit customers in British
racing, a role she still juggles with her
pitches position today.
But Sharman is not alone in either
area. “I have a cracking team to help
me with the credit clubs,” she says,
“and Gary still joins me regularly at the
racecourse. We share a lot of the work.
“He’s a great personality and it
gives us tremendous publicity because
the media – Channel 4 in particular –
are always interviewing him.
“Everyone is very committed at the
Tote and it’s a great place to work; it
doesn’t matter where you are in the
rankings, we are all treated as equals.”
Once dubbed ‘Beauty and the
Beast’, the popular duo represent a
significant rails force on 90 per cent
of British courses.
Sharman had been looking forward
to adding her local track at Great
Leighs to the list on Tuesday evening
– that was until Jamie Spencer drilled
home a pair of odds-on shots. She
says: “It was a good experience, not a
profitable one, but there was quite a
good crowd. It always helps when the
sun is shining.
“There are always going to be good
and bad days. I can remember getting
home from the races and looking back
at the results on Teletext and thinking
oh dear, six favourites, how did we
get out of that one? Or, how are we
going to make that up tomorrow?
“But that is what it’s all about. I
enjoy it – I wouldn’t do it otherwise.”
Nevertheless, some sessions are
more enjoyable than others.
“Winning, everybody loves to win,”
she says. “It’s so much easier to
answer questions when there’s a plus
in front and not a minus.
“I take it all very
personally. It’s important
to treat it like it’s your own
money, and that’s where
women prove their worth.
“Women are possibly a little
bit more careful with money;
from my experience they tend to
show great consideration for the
people they work for and with, and
have a greater understanding of
people’s needs.”
S
HARMAN believes the largest
hurdle women trying to
progress in the betting
industry face, particularly in
the realms lurking outside the
confines of high street offices, is the
public’s general preconception that
the logical thinking involved in
successful mathematics – an essential
skill in bookmaking – eludes the fairer
sex.
She argues: “I think the biggest
problem for them [women] is that
because so many people still assume
they aren’t up to the job, they lack
confidence in themselves; they think
they don’t know what they are doing
and they hesitate, ending up just
stuck in the shops.”
Having grafted her way to the top,
does she feel respected among her
peers?
“One hundred per cent,” she says.
“Men are coming to terms more and
more with women proving successful
‘Men are coming to terms
more and more with
women proving successful
within the industry’
within the industry.
“Most of the people working on the
racecourse are lovely; it can get a bit
heated in the ring sometimes, but at
the end of the day everyone helps
everyone out. You know if someone’s
in trouble and we all pitch in, no
matter what it is.”
The astute Sharman is always
looking for value. She says: “I only
bet on big prices, mostly double-
figures and not usually more than a
fiver. I love the Placepot and the
Exacta – they are fantastic bets, and
that’s where you get your money.”
But it’s not all plain sailing, and
there is one thing that really upsets
her: “It’s the rain. I can’t stand it.
Everything gets wet – you, the money,
the slips, the boards, and then you
spend the whole evening drying
things out in the kitchen.”
Luckily, she always has her ‘I’m a
Toteswinger’ umbrella to hand.
Strong, proficient females like
Sharman prove that women are
mentally tough enough to cut it with
the boys, and as more of her kind
emerge, old-fashioned generalisations
are rapidly ebbing from industry
leaders’ minds, and being replaced by
evidence that in a male-orientated
world nothing gets results like the
opposite sex.
Pam Sharman: has worked for Totesport for almost 30 years