Thanks to everybody for making the site what it is

It’s exactly five years ago today that PB started and this evening there’s a celebration party in London. Thanks to Ladbrokes for their generous sponsorship of the wine.

I’m off to the station shortly and am looking forward to meeting many of the PBers who regularly take part in our discussions. From the guest list we have a good mix of long-standing regulars, newer participants and those who, as they say, lurk.

Just thinking back to March 2004 and the prime motivation was not that I wanted to be a blogger but that I got, and still get, great pleasure from talking about political betting, the polls and election forecasting. What I wanted was to create a place where others who had a similar interest could participate, share and have a conversation.

Well we are still here, the audience has grown and grown and now there’s a small team to support me. There’s Paul Maggs (Double Carpet) and Morus in addition to Peter Smith and Marf. Also there’s my son Robert who has maintained the platform from the time when we had a few dozen page views a day to, on a regular basis now, more than two million a month.

I think that the site is best when there are interesting things to bet on when the outcome is not too far off. That’s not always possible though I have been impressed at some of the innovative markets that have come forward particularly from Ladbrokes. Let’s hope for some more.

This anniversary month will see a major milestone – our millionth comment. We are just 21,000 short as I write and should reach the seven figure mark in about two and half weeks. Given the race to be first on each thread heaven knows what passing the million mark is going to be like!

For its been the continuous flow of mostly interesting insights from a wide range of people that have made PB. I know that sometimes people go too far and as we get closer to the general election it might take some policing.

Thanks to you all for being part of this, for being civilised most of the time and for all your ideas and insights.