Since he left these shores in favour of the warmer climes and more favourable tax regime of Gibraltar, Victor Chandler has put himself into the major league of international bookies. James Hipwell went to meet him.



Victor Chandler lives and breathes bookmaking as have three generations of his family. For InsideEdge, he is the raffishly cool epitome of the gentleman bookie; the chancer who backs his hunches. So how and where to start with a profile of him?



Firstly, I should declare an interest. I used to write a column called City Slickers for the Daily Mirror. After meeting Victor many times on racecourses on big race days I grew to like him and would often describe him in the column as 'Britain's greatest bookie' or sometimes just plain 'BGB' for short.



When I got fired following an inconsequential financial scandal, a journalist from the Sunday Times, rang Victor to ask whether whenever I referred to Victor as 'BGB' he would wipe my slate clean.