P R O F I L E :
B E T 3 6 5
A VIEW FROM
THE TOP
Bet365 is an egaming success
story almost without parallel.
Joint-CEO Denise Coates talks
exclusively to eGaming Review
to explain how the increasingly
powerful operator plans to stay
ahead of the competition
B
et365 and its management are notoriously
private. At its headquarters on the outskirts
of Stoke-on-Trent, a city wedged between
Manchester and Birmingham, joint-CEOs
and siblings John and Denise Coates have cultivated
a persona of quiet professionalism. Its offices are
part of a sprawling complex of modern buildings
which feels like a self-contained village on an
otherwise featureless industrial estate. Despite its
riches, there is nothing grandiose about bet365’s
operations and even the executive offices are small
and functional.
The company has changed beyond recognition
since it was formed in 2000 and employed just 25
people in a temporary office close to one of bet365’s
retail stores. In 2013 there are now 2,500 employees
working globally for the operator, which has staff on
the ground in Gibraltar, Spain and Australia.
However, Denise Coates, who runs day-to-day
operations and is majority shareholder with 50.1%,
stresses that the fundamentals have remained the
same. “It has of course had to evolve significantly
from the early days,” she explains. “When you
go from employing 25 people to over 2,500 over
a period of 14 years, it is essential that you build
26
a strong management team. However, it is also
crucial that everyone buys into the way you want the
business run. What hasn’t changed is that I remain
very hands on and that I enjoy running the business
just as much as I did when we started.”
Being a ‘hands-on’ boss in a company that size
might sound oxymoronic, but the centralised nature
of the business has allowed Coates to do just that.
Despite being a market leader, bet365 employs just
one person in Spain, instead preferring to employ
multi-lingual staff at its hubs in Stoke and Gibraltar.
“It is true that I do like the centralised approach
to the extent that it is possible,” Coates explains.
“That to a large extent is a by-product of the handson way I like to run the business. I am not claiming
it’s the only way to run one; it’s just the way that
suits me. I like to have all the different departments
close by and I love the fact that everybody feeds off
one another.”
The bad news for competitors? It not only seems
to be working but also seems to be genuinely
sustainable. Examples elsewhere in the industry
show others are taking a completely different tack.
Ladbrokes has outsourced a huge amount of its
marketing to Israel and William Hill has just opened
up a new tech hub in central London.
But bet365 remains focused on a centralised
approach, highlighted by December’s announcement
that it will move into a new, 2,800 capacity Stoke
headquarters by 2016. Furthermore, Coates does not
write off opening larger offices in other locations in
the future, but believes the impetus is maintained
through the tight-knit management of the business.
“I would say the ethos is to keep up the
momentum. It is crucial that businesses have
momentum in such a hugely competitive world.
You have to make informed decisions within short
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