Betfred - A hugely successful bookmaker built by Two Brothers

As one of the UK’s biggest bookmakers, Betfred gets a lot of attention from both customers and the media. It does this by providing a huge range of high-quality gambling and gaming services to expand its customer base and improve its standing amongst the competition. But they haven’t always been the gambling giants that they are now and actually started as a single shop in Ordsall, Salford of all places.

Founding

In 1967 brothers Peter and Fred Done from Salford, England decided to set up a small bookmaker’s shop in Ordsall, Salford. They decided to name the bookies after the elder Done and so came up with the name ‘Betfred’ which of course the company still holds to this day.

As two sporting fanatics, the business was a fun little venture for the Done brothers but the success and profits that the two started receiving meant that expansion was on the cards in a big way. Pete and Fred bought their second location in Salford in 1969. They then began to expand their business further by setting up Betfred branches in different parts of the country and buying smaller betting agencies.

Growth

In 1997 they had 100 shops across Britain. In 1999 they purchased 40 bookmakers from the Demmy Racing group. By the start of the millennium, Betfred had expanded to 200 shops! That’s right, they doubled their amount of businesses in just three years! Despite being this large they did not have any stores in the Greater London Area until 2002 when they opened their first one. That same year they launched the Betfred phone Betting service which allowed for people to now place bets from anywhere in Britain and not just in their shops for the first time in Betfred history.

Betfred launched first launched their website in 2004 and it is now one of the biggest parts of their business. The website at that time was very basic compared to its 2017 counterpart with only the most rudimentary of services available to them. It is only through continuous attention and development that they have been able to make it into the one stop bookmaking shop that it is today.

The mid-2000’s was a great time for the Betfred company, they went from strength to strength in their expansion and made history by making the first betting shop millionaire in 2004. The following year they opened their 500th shop in Cardiff, Wales which again just exemplifies the extremely fast rate at which they were expanding.

The Modern Age

Betfred have continuously shown us that they are adamant in their goal of becoming one of the big players in the bookmaking game. To stay on top of the betting world Betfred have constantly had to make steps and moves in the right direction to sure up their holdings and expand the brand. They did this in 2011 when they purchased British betting institution ‘The Tote’ in a deal worth £265m. This was a great business decision as it opened up a huge new wealth of potential customers through the Tote shops and outlets at racecourses that were already well established.

A betting company must also be fluid with the times and embrace technology head on and with vigour. Betfred have definitely done this with the development of both their brilliant website and their mobile app.

Check out our Betfred Casino Review or go visit Betfred now!