Biggest Bookies And The Distribution Of The Gambling Industry In The UK

You may examine the gambling and gambling industry and think there is a whole lot of healthy rivalry, with hundreds of brands currently vying for our pennies. Many businesses however, though they might seem impartial, are in fact component of the same group, and you may never know it. Like many markets, there are actually a few big players and the remainder are left to scramble for the remainder of the custom.
It is not only the old high street bookies such as William Hill and Betfred that occupy the top spots from the largest betting company leagues. Many early online only bookmakers have beaten the old land based operators, such as Bet365, and also the world’s biggest and earliest online exchange, Betfair. Mergers between already huge companies like Ladbrokes and Coral and Betfair and Paddy Power has generated behemoth bookies. The future of bookmaking in the united kingdom is in the equilibrium as it risks becoming a monopoly of a very few enormous companies, very much enjoy the energy markets.
Within this report we also look at the development of the united kingdom gaming industry, the dimensions of the profits made together with the progressive switch to online betting and gaming.
Largest CompaniesUK Market ShareUK Market SizeEvolution of all GamblingMergers
Largest Betting Companies Ladbrokes-Coral Group Plc (owned by GVC Holdings)
Position 1
Headquarters
London
Revenue
#2.5 Billion
Employees 30000
High Street Shops
4000
Established 2016 (Merger)
ladbrokes-coral
William Hill were ousted from top spot after the merger at 2016 of Britain’s second and third biggest bookmakers in 2015, finished 2016. The new company, imaginatively named Ladbrokes-Coral Plc, generates nearly #2.5 billion in revenue each year and employees over 30,000 individuals and is listed on the FTSE 250.
In 2018 the new group was farther bought by GVC in a deal worth around #4 billion, including additional capability to the brand on an global scale. GVC also own and run websites like sportingbet (though we would not recommend them to bet with), partypoker and Bwin.
Ladbrokes, Britain’s oldest gambling company founded in 1886, and Coral, based at the 1926, have over 200 years experience of being a bookmaker involving them. The group own almost 4000 betting shops, although were forced to market over 300 in the merger, and so are two of the most recognisable brands on the British high street.
Coral, started by Joe Coral an online bookmaker in the 1920’s, grew immediately following legalisation of off-course gaming stores in 1961, becoming one of the first bookies to make the most. Merging with another company in 1971 to become Coral Leisure the group was obtained by Bass in 1981. In 1997 Ladbrokes chose their first effort to purchase Coral from Bass however that was blocked by the UK Monopolies and Mergers Commission at the moment. Coral was sold to Morgan Grenfell, a private equity company in 1999 and also merged with Eurobet, one of the very first online betting sites, in precisely the same year. Gala bingo, founded in 1991 and functioning over 150 halls using an additional online presence, merged with Coral in 2005 to make the Gala Coral Group.
Ladbrokes was started by two guys who acted as a commission agents for horses (trained at Ladbroke Hill). After a move to London in the early 20th century the company became a bookmaker for rich clients. Falling on harder times following WWII that the company was sold for only #100,000. The identical legalisation of betting shops that drove Coral’s increase in 1961 nonetheless reversed the fortunes of Ladbrokes also, who were afterwards floated on the stock exchange for #1M in 1966. With forays into the hotel (Hilton Group) and residence convenience industry the Ladbrokes team grew to second biggest UK bookmaker. Before the Coral merger Ladbrokes also obtained BETDAQ, the second largest betting exchange, 2013.
The group now generate over a third of their profits from electronic sources and involving them have more internet clients than any other business. For much more about each brand see our full reviews.
Ladbrokes Review Coral Review
William Hill Plc
Position 2
Headquarters
London
Revenue
#1.7 Billion
Employees 16000
High Street Shops
2300
Established 1934
william-hill
For a long time William Hill would be the biggest betting business in the UK with over 2300 shops and only under #2 billion in yearly earnings. The operator, that currently generates around 200 million in annual earnings and is listed on the FTSE 250, comes from humble beginnings.
In 1934 the company was established by Mr William Hill, who following some early failures and prohibited enterprises found he could make money by means of a loophole that permitted off-course gambling using post or credit. Hill’s entered late into the gaming store industry, starting their first 5 years following the change in legislation in 1966, due to the creators belief that they were a cancer to society. He relented when he noticed how fast his opponents were getting forward.
The business changed ownership many times down the years. Bought for #700 million in 1997, the newest was sold two years after for #825 million and recorded on the London Stock Exchange in 2002.
The William Hill group have experienced some corporate failures through the years but their competitive strategy, especially online, has enabled them to control the market landscape. Probably the most well known bookmaker in the world, largely down to the fact Hill’s have spread out the UK more than any other bookie, and due to their vast amount they spend on advertising and sponsorship.
William Hill Review William Hill Casino Review
Paddy Power Betfair Plc
Ranking 3
Headquarters
Dublin
Revenue
#1.75 Billion
Workers 8000
High Street Shops
600 (UK + I)
Launched 2016 (Merger)
paddy-power-betfair
Many mergers are merely about money. Coral didn’t really bring anything new to Ladbrokes for instance, but also the merger between Betfair and Paddy Power from 2016 to create the third largest betting brand was certainly mutually beneficial to both parties.
Paddy Power, among Ireland’s largest bookmakers, was founded in 1988 but it was the online age that really saw the newest come to life through its often controversial advertising strategies. Holding over 600 stores across the UK and Ireland and boasting retail earnings of nearly #1 billion Paddy Power attracted the real world locations, marketing strategy and cash to the merger.
Betfair on the other hand had a very distinct history in the gambling industry. Launching as a peer-peer gaming market rather than a traditional bookie in 2000, Betfair became the largest of its kind in no time in any way. Despite better chances on offer from the exchange, the market still remains fairly small (see later) and so in order to compete Betfair established a fixed odds sports publication in 2011. Betfair are the smaller party in the merger, generating less than #500 million in revenue. For this reason PP shareholders received 52% and Betfair 48% of the new firm.
Paddy Power Review Betfair Review
Bet365 Group Ltd
Position 4
Headquarters
Stoke-on-Trent
Revenue
#2.3 Billion
Employees 3500
High Street Shops
None
Launched 2000
Bet365
Bet365 meteoric rise has come form the electronic industry, and considering that only now is the online gambling market larger than the high road (excluding national lottery) which is a fairly remarkable performance. When they say in their advents that Bet365 is the worlds favorite online gambling company they really are not lying.
Established in 2000 from a tiny temporary building in Stoke by now multi-billionaire Denise Coates, Bet365 now generates massive online earnings and is the largest private employer in Stoke. They own the soccer stadium.
Denise began the company by borrowing from her fathers mortar and brick bookmaking company, established in 1974 by Stoke City chairman Peter Coates. Selling off the shops to Coral in 2005 Bet365 became an internet only operator where they’ve gained a huge customer base of over 20+ million people from 200 nations. The brand has the best reputation within the gambling and gaming sector from the punters and insiders and boasts among the most loyal customer bases of any business enterprise.
Often mentioned as a success story of British internet business, if you were to rule out the offline gaming sector then these men are the greatest. Multi-award winnings and continuously developing new technology and ideas the only way that this organization is moving in the long run is up.
Bet365 Review
Betfred
Ranking 5
Headquarters
Warrington
Revenue
#800 Million
Employees 1000
High Street Shops
1650
Launched 1967
Betfred
The Betfred journey to becoming one of the biggest independent gambling companies in the UK is more heart-warming than others. Established from a single shop in Salford by Fred an Peter Done in 1967, the group now have a multi-billion turnover and up to #1 billion in revenues annually. According to Warrington the company hasn’t been sold or merged and remains in the very same hands as it began in.
Fred Done is known specifically for paying our ancient on Manchester United to win the league twice just for them lose on both events (1998 and 2012). In addition, he dropped #1,000,000 in a personal bet with Victor Chandler (proprietor of BetVictor) gambling again on Man United, this opportunity to finish greater than Chelsea in 2005 – they did not. Despite these misjudgements Fred is also famous for inventing the Lucky 15 and other full cover bets.
The business has a large betting shop operation, and since buying around 300 shops that Ladbrokes-Coral were made to sell now own at the area of 1650 stores in the united kingdom. Famed for being among the very best racing bookmakers Betfred improved their exposure in this market by buying the bag at 2011 for #265. This allows them to enable totepool bets to other operators in addition to supplying bespoke tote bets others don’t have. Despite this Betfred’s future seems blended and will likely hinge on how well they develop online in the coming years.
Betfred Review
888 Holdings Plc
Position 6
Headquarters
Gibraltar
Revenue
#600 Million
Employees 1600
High Street Shops
None
Established 1997
888-holdings
888 is a completely modern betting company, there’s absolutely no romantic back story here. Now part of a somewhat convoluted corporate structure, 888 Holdings is the gambling arm of parent company Cassava Enterprises. Initially founded as Virtual Holdings running an early casino site, casino-on-net, by two Israeli business guys, the company grew in step with the development of the internet.
The brand was renamed 888 at 2002 and despite having a hard hit when online gambling became illegal in several US lands in 2006 has continued to rise in all areas of online gambling. The group run a sports (888 Sport) and poker site (888 Poker) along with several casino (e.g. 888 casino, 777 casino)) and bingo brands (e.g. 888 bingo, 888 ladies, Wink Bingo) using a distribution of 61% casino, 18% poker, 11% sport and 9 percent bingo.
888 are a global online specialist which will only grow in the long run. The company was fined nearly #8M from the gaming commission in 2017 for failure to correctly protect vulnerable gamblers in the united kingdom. This will slow down the aggressive growth strategy of the company, although only slightly.
888 Sport Review 888 Casino Review
Kindred Group (Unibet, 32Red, Stan James, et al)
Ranking 7
Headquarters
Malta
Revenue
#800 Million
Employees 1400
High Steet Shops
100 (Stan James)
Established 1997
Kindred
Kindred is a title that you may likely haven’t heard of, it is in reality the rebranding of this old Unibet Group Plc after the acquisition of more than a dozen other manufacturers.
Fast becoming one of the largest betting companies in Britain and Europe that the Kindred group includes Stan James, 32Red, Bingo.com and Maria. Unibet is of course the jewel in the crown, the brand has grown to become one of the largest online betting sites with over 15 million customers.
The future goal of the brand is apparent from their current history of takeovers, paying #19 million for Stan James (which includes a brand new real world presence) and #175 million to the best rated online casino 32Red.
Unibet Review 32Red Casino Review
Market Share And Gambling Revenue Distribution
UK online and offline gambling market share
The pie charts above show an overall representation of the distribution of gaming revenue in the UK. Offline gambling is still the largest sector as this include the federal lottery (28%), compared to high street bookies (27 percent ) and land-based casinos (5%) only online betting is larger (40%). The tendency in offline to online is predicted to continue in the future.
Within the online marketplace casino is the largest (slots 37% and other games 15%), followed by with sports betting (40 percent ). Exchange gambling (3%), online poker (2 percent ) and online bingo (2%).
The Size Of The UK Gambling Industry
The UK gambling sector currently generates around #15 billion in annual revenues and is growing rapidly at around 8 percent a year. Of this total on a third (Number 5 billion +) is made from online gambling, using a rough split of 60 percent casino and 40% sports gambling.
The sector as a whole is responsible for contributing approximately #8 billion into the UK treasury every year and directly employs over 100,000 individuals (possibly up to 500,000 in the event that you include indirect workers ).
High Street Bookmakers And Land Bases Casinos
Supply of high street gambling venuesDespite the continuous change towards online betting because the turn of the century there are still about 9000 betting shops in the UK (90% of which are controlled by Coral, William Hill, Ladbrokes and Betfred), 600 bingo halls, and 1800 arcades and 150 land-based casinos (63 possessed by the Rank Group and 41 by Genting). There are in the area of 200,000 gambling machines worked in the united kingdom too, of which around 40,000 will be the controversial fixed odds betting terminals (FOBTs).
The National Lottery (along with other lottery) revenues are also contained in the overall gambling revenue figure. This make up to #3.5 billion of the total, with at the region of #250 million moving back to good causes.
High street bookmaking is responsible for a similar figure, #3.5 billion yearly, claiming over 95 percent of the non-remote gambling earnings in the UK. Pool gambling (such as the Tote) makes up 4% with different sources, for example on-track bookies, making up only 1 percent.
Land-based casinos create #1 billion in annual profits. Just under half of this comes from roulette (44 percent ), per quarter from blackjack (25%), a fifth (20 percent ) form slots and other electronic games and the remainder from various other tables and games.
Online Betting And Casino
Sports betting distribution in the UKApproximately 57% of online gambling earnings comes from remote casinos. Of this 3 quarters derives from slots, with the remainder coming from table along with other games (an opposite tendency to land based casinos). Poker, that is classified under casino, generates less than 2 percent of their total revenue.
Sports betting is the next biggest sector, producing up to 37 percent of the overall earnings. Of this around 54% stems from soccer gambling, around 32 percent from horse racing and the rest from different resources (of which tennis makes up almost half).
Other sources of revenue include exchange gambling (~3%), on line bingo (~3%) and swimming betting (~0.5%).
In 2014 the online sector made up 29 percent of the total market share, by 2016 this had risen to 32%. By 2020 the business could approach 50 percent of annual revenues generated from gambling related actions in the UK.
Evolution Of High Street To Online Betting
Apart from the peculiar independent bookie and a number of the stalls you visit at racecourses, all bookmakers today provide online gambling. Of course, it did not utilized to be this way, and prior to the internet era breaking into the sector was easier said than done. For a full history of gaming see our dedicated page.
Pre-1960’S
Prior to 1960 in the UK it had been prohibited to take bets away from horse and greyhound tracks. Gambling was heavily regulated by the government and although prohibited operators did exist, overall you’d find it hard to put a bet away from the monitor.
Bookies did still take bets off-course through loop-holes in the law that allowed bets to be taken by phone or through postal order. This is the way William Hill began out. If you were wealthy enough of course there were always options open for you, Ladbrokes for example began as a gentleman’s bookmaker for high profile clients. In the event that you were nevertheless a normal working-class lad or lass nevertheless, there were very few options open for you.
Even then most gambling at the time was for dog and horse racing only. Football gambling was mostly outlawed, except for low stakes pool gambling syndicate games, such as the football pools (which still exists today).
Fundamentally before 1960 betting was not very simple as you had to go to some race-track to do it (or do it illegally in a back street gambling den). That’s unless you were rich when the law didn’t actually apply to you personally and you could bet through discreet merchants.
1960 Betting And Gaming Act And Betting Shops
Gambling shopIn 1960 the authorities finally embraced the new era. Normal people had more disposable income in their pockets and they wanted more freedom with how to invest their money. The gambling action for the first time allowed off-course gambling and from the next year, May 1961, a whole host of new gambling shops opened across the duration of the country in a rate of 100 per week.
Betting was largely restricted to horse racing, with rules in place like the’trebles rule’ on soccer. This meant all of footy bets needed to be accumulators with 3 or more selections differently you couldn’t bet. The only sports you could put singles was rushing.
Nevertheless this new sector was adopted by the people of Britain, sowing the seed that eventually resulted in the UK getting the biggest gaming state (per head) in the world.
One of the very first individuals to open these new gaming stores was Joel Coral and 10,000 shops are reported to have started within the first 6 months. Paradoxically the UK’s now biggest high street bookie, William Hill, originally refused to open gambling shops, saying they had been a cancer on society. He reneged in 1966.
1970s And 1980s
The bookmaker industry grew exponentially in the decades following legalisation of high street betting. From the 1970’s there have been 15,000 shops in the United Kingdom.
This is the time when a lot of the largest names we know now made and solidified their reputation. Britain’s oldest bookmakers, Ladbrokes, William Hill and Coral were earning so much they even began to spend money on other leisure sectors.
1990’S
Regardless of the enormous success of high street bookies from the past 3 decades the industry had a restricted clientele. The huge majority of punters using betting shops were working class guys and the reputation of shops as being seedy dark dens full of smoke and foul language did not help to change this.
Bookies sought to make a bigger customer base by introducing new features, such as live game in stores and new soccer coupons to encourage more diverse customers and bets. The elimination of the’trebles rule’ on football in 1990’s moved a great way towards supporting the bookies branch out, with punters now able to back singles on a selection of sports.
A progressively better image, wider array of bets and markets, more televised sports (especially Premier League soccer ) and an ever-increasing disposable earnings, saw the fortunes of bookmakers rise again.
By the mid-1990’s the sector seemed locked down with five enormous companies dominating the landscape, together with a couple of independents across the nation. Many thought betting and gaming will be like this forever. That was before the internet came along.
New Millennium And The Internet Online betting 2As the 1990’s drew to a close a brand new threat began to emerge to the older established order, online betting. This was more dangerous to the established high street bookies than you might imagine.
High road bookmaking was controlled by various betting and gaming functions and much more importantly stakes were taxed (9p/#1 staked). Online gambling nevertheless was a tiny bit like the wild west, so you can essentially set up in which you wanted, launch a site and start accepting bets from customers — tax free.
Although preventing tax on gaming stakes and winnings was at the time technically illegal it was almost impossible to police. New companies along with the old high street bookies began to set up new websites, mainly based off shore in Gibraltar or Malta, to take advantage of the tax free commerce (many are still located there today).
From the late 1990’s and early 2000’s the industry share online was very low and although the new unregulated online trade was a concern that it was not prevalent enough to induce changes yet. The bookies were making enough from the high street though tax avoiding new brands were taking a percentage of their profits.
Victor Chandler And Tax
In 1999 Victor Chandler (now BetVictor) transferred his bookmaking business off shore to Gibraltar in protest in the gambling tax prices in the UK, selling his 41 stores to Coral. This enabled Victor to supply gaming chances to global clients, especially from Asia, without paying UK tax. Additionally, it allowed UK punters to bet with no even paying the 9p/# stake tax.
It is believed it was this decision that led the then UK chancellor, Gordon Brown, to eliminate the gambling tax in 2001. Saying that although he removed the tax paid directly by the punter new taxes were imposed on the bookies profits earned in the united kingdom and by this point the boat had mostly sailed and many traditional bookies were running their online performance from abroad.
2005 Gambling Act
gambling act 2005
Finally the government realised that the status quo couldn’t continue indefinitely. This {wasn’t|was not

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