Bet365 – From Car Park To Gambling Colossus

Bet365 is one of the great British internet success stories but the origins of the company are not within the databanks of a computer system but the betting shops of the 1970s

Today Bet365 is a name synonymous with successful online gambling, with a reputation for superb customer service, slick marketing and an envious position as one of the largest gambling entities in the lucrative UK market. Its notable provision for opportunities to engage with sports beyond the usual basket of mainstays it has established a rock firm business model in the internet gambling world and continues to develop and evolve with the dynamics of the market, a testament to the management of this very British enterprise.

Bet365 From Portakabin To Pole Position
• Launched in 2001
• Provides Sports, Casino and mobile betting
• Variety and accessibility won it customers

It was in 1974 when the former member of the Parachute Regiment, Peter Coates, bought a few betting shops as an other string to his bow that consisted mainly of a catering business that specialized in the provision of services to football grounds and stadiums. He himself has said that he was not to know at the time what would become of this investment, nor the level of success it wouldl eventually reap, but then, of course, in 1974 internet gambling was the stuff of science fiction.

It wouldn’t be for another quarter century that the bricks-and-mortar betting shops would transpose themselves into the largest online sportsbooks in the UK, if not the world, a successful market leading powerhouse that is today a household name due to the care an attention paid to the brand proliferation tactics and expansive public profile. However the actual substantive basis of that catapulting of a traditional-base business onto the online superhighway, was somewhat less science fiction and more builder’s merchant as the company is reputed to have been formed in a portakabin in a car park.

Stoke-On-Trent has a history of mining dating back to the 13th century, and indeed Peter Coates’ father had been a miner, it was a center of porcelain excellence with both the Wedgwood and Spode works nearby and has even given the world both Robbie Williams and Lemmy from Motorhead, but it was in a portakabin in the year 2000 that Bet365 was founded as an entity with not Peter but his daughter Denise with her hands firmly on the reins, and it would be she that would be the driving force behind the company’s rapid rise.

The Rise Of The Internet

Denise Coates is a micro-chip off the old block having worked as a cashier in her father’s betting shops as a teenager and gaining a first in Economics from the University of Sheffield, training as an accountant and rising to manage the entire chain of betting shops. Bringing in substantive change in the performance of the business she expanded it absorbing a rival chain of betting shops and proving herself as a capable decision maker and strategist. By the late nineties it was becoming clear that there was a new avenue of business available to those with the vision to see it, and Denise saw it all too clearly.

Headquartered in what might generously be termed a “temporary building” Bet365 officially began to exist when Denise purchased the domain name Bet365.com and set about developing the facilities and tools that make up the nuts and bolts of an internet presence. Getting the feel and function of the website was essential and the care and attention given over to its creation was an inherent factor in its eventual success. It did it all, and it did it better than anyone else. Not only was it slick and secure but it was also accessible and inclusive to a degree other online gambling sites in UK of the era couldn’t match.

In fact the bigger names of the more traditional gambling business were playing catch up to this newcomer that was able to provide something to wager upon at any time of the night or day, and didn’t limit itself by clinging on to the somewhat staid attitudes that were wary of the implications of this techno-boom. For its part Bet365 grew with success and demand, branching the site out from sports to casino games, as well as poker and bingo. This carefully executed expansion only bolstered their market position and proved they were not to be seen off by the old faces as some other attempted ventures had been.

Expansion remained key with the move to provide services beyond the, now all but irrelevant cartographic conspiracy theories that are, international borders by simple dint of offering services translated into other languages, and the provision for deposit and betting in various foreign currencies. This now ubiquitous facility was an instant success raising the profile of the company not just in the new wider market of the internet but also in the UK where their aggressive marketing was making a big impression on punters.

Expansion Is The Key

In 2005 Bet365 sold off its bricks-and-mortar betting shops to another going gambling concern, shedding the final remnants of the old business model. Monies made from this sell off were ploughed back into the online business and it is that investment that has kept the company at the forefront of the market and technological development. The evolution of the site mirroring precisely the technological steps forward taken by the industry as a whole it has stayed fresh and current over time which has not only gained it custom but retained that custom too.

Those technological developments are the core of the business with smooth marketing as close support for these new-wave service provisions and innovative opportunity access points. The pace of change has meant that new features had to be incorporated efficiently and seamlessly into the site as it stood with the advances in live streaming especially granting a level of involvement that is site-centric that was unthinkable just a few years ago. Couple this with the over arching advertising campaigns, especially during football matches, that played on the high-tech aspect, and it’s not difficult to see where the success comes from.

If you’d told Peter Coates in 1974 that one day his business would be advertising during the commercial breaks in television broadcasts of Stoke City matches with LIVE up-to-the-second odds in secondary betting markets (the most common being the odds on a certain player being the next to score) there’s a fair chance he’d have dismissed you as a bit of a loony, but today that’s precisely what Bet365 does. Removing the traditional, some might say seedy, stigma of betting shops and replacing it with the gleaming tint of modern technology where it is all at your finger tips has played extremely well.

These days Bet365 is the largest online gambling entity in the world, and looks set to continue that dominant position as the market grows both domestically and across the rest of the world. What’s for certain is that whatever development in technology next hits the gambling news headlines, the chance are you’ll see it incorporated first into Bet365 as it seeks to stay one step ahead of the competition in what daily becomes a more fiercely fought over market. Given the company now has revenues of over a billion dollars, you’d not bet against them.

Read more about Bet365’s success.