Do tic-tac men still exist?

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, every racecourse bookmaker employed the services of a tic-tac man who, from a strategic position near the rails between the Members’ and Tattersalls’ enclosures, would communicate vital betting information across the betting ring by means of an elaborate system of hand signals. For a nominal fee, a tic-tac man would supply each of his client bookmakers with a ‘twist card’, by means of which the holder could ‘translate’ his manual semaphore into the current odds of each horse elsewhere on the racecourse, without the information being intercepted by anyone not ‘in the know’.

The history of the tic-tac system dates back to the late nineteenth century and the ‘secret’ language was handed down from generation to generation, much to the consternation of punters, few of whom had any understanding of what the signs meant. White-gloved tic-tac men, frantically relaying prices across the betting ring were a common sight on British racecourses until late in the twentieth century. Indeed, although the profession had pretty much ceased to be by that stage, it was not until May 2015 that the licence requirements for tic-tac men ‘no longer served any regulatory purpose’, according to the Gambling Commission, and were removed.

Technology, principally in the form of online betting exchanges – not least Betfair, which officially launched on June 9, 2000 – sounded the death knell for the art of tic-tac. Functionally, there is no longer any need for tic-tac men on the racecourse, so what were once ‘the beating heart of the ring’, according to veteran bookmaker Gary Wiltshire, are little more than a historical novelty. Like blackboards, chalk and brightly-coloured betting tickets, there are, sadly, a thing of the past.