Synes dette er en rigtig interessant artikel. Hentet fra EGR.
The world’s leading online gaming operator will remain private and “never float”, its founder and majority shareholder Denise Coates has admitted to eGaming Review in her first ever interview.
In an exclusive interview published in the December issue of eGaming Review out at the end of this month, Denise Coates, who founded the company in a portacabin in Stoke in 2000 said – unlike competitor Betfair that recently went public – she has “no plans to float” or exit the business at any point.
“We don’t want to think every day, ‘what does the City think of this’ or ‘I have to do things’, because that’s what the City would like you to do or the City think well or badly of you if you do this or that,” she said. “We don’t want the pressure; we just want to get on with running our business. We don’t need it.
“It was never about an exit”. We like running the business, we like what we do, we enjoy coming to work. We’re going to remain private. I don’t relish the idea [to float].”
The operator was rated number one on this year’s seventh annual eGaming Review Power 50 that ranks the world’s 50 most powerful and influential online gaming operators. Bet365 employs 1,400 people in Stoke, is live in 17 languages across the world and will accept more than $5.4bn in wagers in sports bets this year alone according to figures seen by eGaming Review. Its revenues for the year ended March 2010 were £358m, while operating profit was around £104m, four times larger than Betfair. It also has no outstanding debt.
Following a first in econometrics, at 22 years-old Denise Coates decided that the retail arm of her father’s booking making business, that she was running at the time and had built up from 12 to 49 outlets, would not be able to compete on a national scale and that the internet was the future. “The whole excitement of the internet was not only did it mean you could compete with the main chains, you could actually compete outside the UK. Sports betting just seemed a natural fit to me and I was determined to take the business online,” she said.
She then purchased the Bet365 domain for £10,000 from eBay, founded the business from a portacabin in 2000, built a sportsbook and a trading team in 15 months, and officially launched what would become the world’s largest egaming operator in March 2001.
During the interview she admits she “always knew it would be global” but that the first few years were “extremely tough” as she battled to fund the business during the dot com crash and take it to its next phase of growth. She later convinced RBS to lend her and her family £15m, “effectively mortgaging off the shop estate”, she admits, while her father, Peter, lent her £3m from the sale of his catering business to take Bet365 to profitability.
Peter Coates, 8% shareholder in Bet365, is also chairman of Premier League football club Stoke City, itself owned by Bet365. He made his fortune with Stadia Catering supplying catering to nearly every football club in the UK. He then acquired three betting shops which he expanded to a chain of 49 selling it for £40m in 2005. Father and daughter are predicted to break into the Sunday Times top 100 rich list later this year with Peter and Denise’s worth reported to be more than £400m in 2009, according to the newspaper.
“We’re constantly looking to invest in the products we have, and make sure we have scalability to deal with any legislative changes, and to be bigger and better. You can’t standstill in anything, because everybody else is looking to move on. I’ll still be here in 10 years,” she added.
Kvinde har gjort Bet365 "stor og hård"
17-11-2010 01:38
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17-11-2010 01:51
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17-11-2010 01:55
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De tjener vel også godt på ikke at udbetale lovede rakepræmier og spærre folks kontoer uden grund.
Ikke nogen større præstation, når den slags kan lade sig gøre ustraffet.
17-11-2010 10:26
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Deres markedsføring siger jo så os bare alt om deres profit og succes ;)
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