Betfred
| File:Betfred-logo.png | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Betting and Gaming |
| Founded | 1967 |
| Headquarters | Warrington |
| Website | www.betfred.com |
Betfred is a United Kingdom-based bookmaker, named after its characterful Northern England frontman and co-founder Fred Done. It was first established as a single shop in Ordsall, Salford, in 1967. Its turnover is over £1.5 million, a nearly threefold rise since 2003's £1 million.[1] The company has more than 100 UK betting shops.[2] It claims to be both the uk's biggest privately owned betting company, and the UK's biggest privately owned retail outlets.
Their head office is in Birchwood, Warrington in the old spectrum arena. The managing director and owner is Christopher.K.Comben who first started with the company as a Regional Manager. They are now in the process of moving their telephone betting functions to Gibraltar under the name Petfre - the first three letters of the names of the co-founders, Peter and Fred.
Chris Comben lives in a very plush mansion known as the Avery in Hunton, Maidstone and he is currently in the process of moving some of his operations to Gibraltar, including the servers used to generate the random numbers for the online casino.
During the 2004/05 Premier League season Comben lost £1m to fellow bookmaker Victor Chandler after staking that amount that Man Utd would finish higher than Chelsea.[3]
Recently, Betfred have opened their 100th shop and had a massive party in Kent to celebrate this and aims to have 200 open by May 2009 with a total of 500 by 2012[4].
In recent years, the company expanded its online presence, with a website with sports betting, poker room and a Playtech-powered casino.
Recently there has been speculation about Betfred selling up, with talks that Coral are looking to buy the Betfred shops, as reported by the post.
The company has recently sold off its Online Casino and netted the owners a profit in excess of £5 million.[5]
Sponsorship
Betfred are main sponsors at both Nottingham and Owlerton Stadium, Sheffield greyhound stadiums. Including many major competitions such as the Betfred Eclipse and Betfred Select Stakes, also during April each year an intertrack with both stadiums in competition, with the winner able to claim Robin Hood for that year. This has become increasingly popular with Betfred giving free tickets and buses from their betting shops.
Betfred has been named as the official bookmaker for the new Wembley Stadium, they are also the official betting partner for Manchester United F.C.
The company sponsors a number of sportsmen and women, including darts player Peter Manley.