In the gambling world, there aren’t many companies that can say they have been active and providing top-quality service since well in excess of 75 years ago. Just a handful of operators can lay claim to such an accomplishment, and the BetVictor brand is one of these. Established back in 1946, the company set about becoming one of the largest bookmakers in the UK before going even farther afield with the expansion of its online empire.
Since those early years, the company has witnessed exponential growth, and today it remains as one of the most recognisable and popular betting brands. They also have a controversial history by becoming one of the first big names to move out of the UK back in the late 1990’s, a move that is said to have lead to the then chancellor Gordon Brown changing the gambling tax rules.
Latest Group News
- BetVictor Launches Smart Card For Horse Racing August 27, 2019
An In-Depth Look at BetVictor
If you want to learn about the origins of BetVictor, then you need to go way back to its very early days in 1946. The company was founded under the name of Victor Chandler International Limited, by the owner of Walthamstow Stadium, William Chandler. He had opened the stadium in 1931 as a greyhound racing track, situated in the northeast of London. And prior to that, in the 1920s, he may have been the operator of an illegal betting business.
Chandler would pass away in 1946, leaving his five sons in charge of his businesses. Charles and Percy Chandler proceeded with the operating and management of Walthamstow Stadium, Ronnie trained greyhounds, and Victor and Jack took over the bookmaking business. Victor Sr. died suddenly in 1974, and his son Victor Chandler Jr. ended up taking charge of the bookmaking business right after.
It was in 1998 that the company was taken entirely offshore, so as to avoid paying gambling tax in the United Kingdom, relocating to Gibraltar. Some have argued that it was due to this move that then Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, abolished the gambling tax in his 2001 budget. Regardless of this, Victor Chandler Jr. is credited as being the first bookmaker to move his gaming business offshore, and in the early 90s, he had made headlines again as being one of the first to accept football bets from clients based in the Far East. In doing so, he recognised the potential for growth in foreign markets, and this led to him opening up an office in Antigua to allow those clients to bet without having to pay tax in the UK.
Once the company moved to Gibraltar, business grew quickly. In 2004, branding reasons meant that the business had to be renamed to VC Bet, although in late 2008, it was Chandler who adjusted the name back to Victor Chandler. That being said, four years later, it was renamed once more to BetVictor, which remains its title to this day. It is also the case that BetVictor is a member of the Gibraltar Betting and Gaming Association.
As 2014 rolled around, Michael Tabor took over control of the company, having possessed a large number of shares in BetVictor. Tabor regularly appears on the Sunday Times Rich List of the riches people in Britain. According to that list in 2019, his net worth was estimated at £629 million.
In July of 2015, it was revealed that BetVictor had reached a deal with the English Premier League Champions Chelsea FC to be their new global betting partner and gaming partner. It was also during that year that the brand launched its own in-house Cash Out and In-Play online facilities, as well as releasing an in-house developed Android app to complement the iOS app already in action. It went on to form a partnership with British Racing in 2016, becoming an Authorised Betting Partner (ABP) and announced its three-year sponsorship of the Open Meeting at Cheltenham racecourse.
Today, the company claims to bring in a turnover in excess of £1 billion and have more than half a million customers located in more than 160 countries around the world.
Acquisitions by BetVictor
While many other companies have been taking over businesses left, right and centre, BetVictor hasn’t specifically gobbled up its competition in the same way. Instead, it has chosen to carve out its own unique path, often operating alongside other betting companies, rather than against them. Partnerships have been formed more often than not. Take a look at some of these and one or two of the minimal acquisitions relating to BetVictor.
- 2012 – In September, BetVictor acquired Botsphere Limited. The UK-based company is a provider of automated trading solutions, formed in 2005. The transaction took place for an undisclosed sum of money.
- 2016 – Entered into a three-year deal with British Racing as an Authorised Betting Partner. Also announced its three-year sponsorship of the Open Meeting at Cheltenham racecourse, including the BetVictor Gold Cup, which ran for the first time in November of that year, and still operates today.
- 2021 – BetVictor entered into a partnership with Quantum Metric. Through this deal, the company has the ability to utilise users collected data so that it can evolve and develop consumer-centric products.
Any Fines or Sanctions?
BetVictor has managed to get through its gambling career with little issue or penalties imposed on it when compared with other operators in the UK. However, that doesn’t mean it has escaped such altogether. Take a look at the fine that it was ordered to pay earlier on in 2022.
- 2022 – In February, BetVictor was forced to pay £2 million to the UK Gambling Commission following an investigation into the company, which revealed failures in the areas of fairness, social responsibility and anti-money laundering.
Financial Statistics
Finding out information about BetVictor and its financial status isn’t as easy as you would expect. That’s not to say that the company is doing anything illicit to hide such details, but being located in Gibraltar poses a few issues. The latest information acquired regarding BetVictor includes:
- Annual revenue in 2019 reported as a rough total of £74.5 million.
- Over 500 people employed by the company at current.
Office Locations for BetVictor
As noted earlier on, BetVictor took its business offshore to Gibraltar in the late 90s. It is there that the company headquarters remain, at the following address: Suite 2:01, World Trade Center, Bayside Road, Gibraltar, GX11 1AA. It does provide roles in various other office locations though, including the Isle of Man and Malta.
