You might not have heard of Paul Austin, but it's a good bet you will have heard him talking. For well over a decade, if the subject was gambling and the media wanted a comment then it was Austin's job to put himself in front of the microphone. As PR, first for Ladbrokes and then for City Index and IG Index, Austin was an industry mouthpiece. If gambling is in his blood, and it is - he remembers his first bet being a teenage punt on Peter Walwyn's English Prince in the 1974 Irish Derby - then talking about gambling is his true calling.

'It was something I had always wanted to do,' he says.