The owners of gambling superpower bet365 are considering a £9 billion sale of the firm amid interest from the United States.
The company has held talks with Wall Street banks and US advisers over the last few weeks regarding a full or partial sale that could fetch the upper echelons of a ten-figure sum.
The Guardian reported bet365 have explored a range of options such as:
- Medium-term plan to float the business on a US stock exchange
- Partial sale to a private equity investor
- Pre-float stake to private equity groups
Bet365 recently announced it will be leaving Asian markets such as China – where betting is illegal – and intends to place more of its focus on US online casino operations.
It applied for a license to operate in the state of New York four years ago and upon that, the company told authorities it had no plans to sell, merge or go public.
There looks to have been a change of heart and bet365, one of the globe’s top names in sports betting, now operates in 13 different states across America.
Who Owns Bet365?
Bet365 was founded by Denise Coates, who remains the majority shareholder and joint-chief executive alongside her brother John.
Coates has an estimated net worth of £9.5 billion and is Britain’s richest woman according to the Sunday Times.
When Was Bet365 Founded?
The company was founded in 2000 when Denise Coates purchased the domain name bet365.com from eBay for $25,000. It started off with 12 employees and that number has since grown to 9,000.
It was launched in 2001 as an online betting site. Denise’s family, mainly her father Peter, ran Provincial Racing which owned a small chain of shops from the 1970s through to the mid-2000s.
Denise was made managing director of Provincial Racing in 1995 and borrowed £15 million from RBS against the business to kickstart bet365 – those Provincial shops were later sold to Coral for £40 million in 2005.
How Much Profit Did Bet365 Make Last Year?
For the financial year ending March 2024, bet365 reported a £396.6 million profit from sports and gaming.
The company also enjoyed a 9% rise in group revenue, reaching £3.72 billion. Coates received a package of £94.7 million for this period, down from £221 million the previous year.
Why Is Bet365 Being Sold?
Some believe a reason to sell could be bet365’s rapidly decreasing market share. Experts have warned the firm are only managing to grow at single digits in a double-digit growth environment.
Regulus believes the company’s stagnation stems from four different roadblocks:
- Competitor in-play catch-up
- Slower adoption of mass market multiples, bet builder bets
- Inability to capitalise on post-pandemic gaming growth
- Decline in VIP, grey market contributions
Bet365 transferred ownership of Stoke City Football Club to Denise’s brother John last August and all the signs are adding up to a potential sale of the betting giant.
Denise could be looking for an exit from the game at the age of 57 to reduce her day-to-day duties – she has no natural family successor and a sale looks like the ideal way out.
She owns over 50% of the business and a full sale could see her pocket around £5 billion, certainly not a bad way to call it a day.
Joe Lyons is a betting industry writer for GamblingIndustryNews with years of experience on reputable gambling websites. Joe specialises in long form content in the world of sports betting and gambling. Joe is recognised as an expert in sports fields such as horse racing, soccer, NFL and NBA.
