15-06-2025
Darkest horse at Ascot is ITV poker demon who pocketed £83,500
ITV Racing presenter Oli Bell is the most open of books. A big grin, permanently positive, and the man who broke protocol by blabbing on television what the late Queen Elizabeth had just asked him.
But Bell, 38, will also be the darkest horse in action at Royal Ascot, a poker demon who regularly wins five-figure sums in tournaments and was once sent to Las Vegas by a stag party he was part of 24 hours early with $1,000 to win enough money to pay for everyone's trip. When they arrived, there was $5,000 in cash waiting on the hotel bed.
On a spare weekend he saw that the UK Poker Championships were on in Nottingham, played for five days and got down to the final six players, who agreed to split the prize money. He walked away with £83,500, his biggest single win.
To put that into context, Ryan Moore is the only jockey who could contemplate walking out of Ascot at the end of the week having earned such riches.
At Royal Ascot from Tuesday, Bell will present the Opening Show daily between 9.30am and 10.30am on ITV4. With his father Rupert a renowned sports broadcaster, and uncle Michael Bell a trainer with a Derby, Oaks and Gold Cup winner under his belt, it would seem Bell was born to present racing on television. But it was never quite that straightforward with either poker or television.
Recalling how he got going at cards, he said: 'Instead of charades at Christmas we played cards and gambled with matchsticks. Me, my brothers, sister and mum. They were hopeless and, at that stage, so was I. But, aged 18, I left home, started working for Racing UK as a tea boy and at that time poker was always on television. It was the poker boom and through osmosis and just watching it and playing online, I picked it up.
'Early doors I got some quite good results. I was probably slightly better than other novices. I don't know how but playing small-stakes poker tournaments I was getting results that made me think there'd be something in it if I took it more seriously.
'At Racing TV I was a glorified runner, making tea, but we had an office poker tournament in the Anglers pub. Lydia Hislop, Richard Hoiles, James Willoughby and [American Racing World analyst] Dave Gutfreund all played. I was the youngster but kept doing all right. I was on 11k and Dave walked in one day with my annual salary in a briefcase and said, 'You're going to play poker for me in tournaments.'
'For the first tournament I'd never been to a casino before, never played poker outside the Anglers or my living room, I was a complete amateur but I got to the final table, won 7K and it gave me confidence.'
Skipping sleep to play cards before work
The dilemma facing Bell was that he still wanted, above all, to be a television presenter. 'The first three years, I was playing online and ended up going through the grades. Typically, tournaments would last from 6pm on Sunday 'til 8am on Monday to fit in with US time, and my brother would sit keeping me awake. I'd always have work on a Monday and I'd roll into the office having had zero sleep making the worst cups of tea for [presenter] Nick Luck but having won considerably more than I was earning!'
Bell got his television break aged 21 and, after just five shows, Australia came calling, asking if he would present on a new racing channel. 'I had the conversation,' he recalls. 'Did I give up the presenting dream and just do poker? I did the sensible thing and went to Australia for three years. Because of the time zones, I parked poker. I'd had a great run, it was a moment in my life and that was that.'
When he returned, all the novices had left the market and it was just a bunch of really good players. 'I tried to dip my toe back in but found it hard to adjust to changes in style, the new game and then, in 2017, the ITV job came about, which is my focus.
'But in lockdown everyone started playing poker again and it reignited my passion. I had some decent results so I knew I could still make a living from it. I've still got it. I have no idea what 'it' is – it is like why is Ryan Moore a better jockey? I seem to have an instinct for knowing what I've got in my hand, knowing if I'm in a good or bad spot. It's the same as a jockey. My school report for maths said I was the worst my teacher had taught in 50 years. I'm not a maths genius in any sense.
'But I'm a complete nerd and geek at poker and it complements the day job because it has taught me so many skills that I use in my career. One of my strengths is chatting to anyone, the Queen at Ascot or someone having a pint with mates. Playing poker, you sit at a table and have to work out people from all walks of life, from different countries, religions, backgrounds, you have to read the room, know when to press someone for an answer or ease off.
'For all that it's a degenerate hobby, it's a lucrative one and it has shaped me as a broadcaster. It helps me in day-to-day life and in my profession.
'In Nottingham, I didn't want to be noticed. I wanted them to think I was a professional poker player who was really hard to read. On the first table a lass from Birmingham says, 'Oi, you look just like Oli Bell from the racing.' I apologised and said, 'Yep, that is me.' But when it got to the final table, everyone who was a racing fan was cheering me on.'
On presenting, he says: 'Everyone thinks I got the job through nepotism – it's a harder case to bluff than some! I didn't see my dad for five or six years when he and mum split up. Maybe it was subconscious, not Freudian but through some sort of therapy Daddy issues I wanted to tap into his world and do what he did.
'At school, my careers adviser suggested landscape gardening. My sister doesn't know one end of a horse from another and she still doesn't know what I do for a living. She once texted me on Gold Cup day asking me how the Grand National was going. She wouldn't have a clue.
'Work enabled me to reconnect with dad. I did my first work experience with him at Burghley. My first interview was after the dressage test. A female rider just scored 99.9 and I assumed she had been 0.1 per cent off perfection, little knowing that the lower the score the better.
'My first ever question on air was: 'You must be delighted with that?' I thought they were tears of joy rather than sadness! Dad became a mentor, in a way I got a dad again. He's mates with all my mates. He's a great laugh, good to have around, a proper pro other than when he slept in the car park following Big Orange's Gold Cup win [for Uncle Mike],' when Bell jnr himself famously chased horse and jockey up the run-in, microphone in hand.
'The next day we were going to an advert break and John Warren, the Queen's racing adviser, beckoned me over in the paddock and introduced me to Her Majesty, who said, 'Oh, you're the lunatic who ran on the track'. I don't think you're meant to blurt out what she said but Ed [Chamberlin, ITV's lead racing presenter] asked and I did.
'We [ITV Racing] work bloody hard, live out of a suitcase, we have the best job in racing and are so fortunate. We try our best and in life, whether you're a horse running at Ascot, a jockey riding there, you do your best.
'Even though I look like I don't give a s--- bouncing around a racecourse, one thing I don't take for granted is my job. I care deeply about racing and about presenting well.'
