Betfred Bookmaker Review

The inexorable rise of the Betfred Bookmaker brand continued unabated with the purchase of Totesport, formerly the Tote, in June 2011.

The Totesport brand will slowly weaken as Fred Done's eponymous Betfred organisation fulfils any egocentric tendencies the founder may have in the UK betting world. Even the world famous Cheltenham Gold Cup will now carry the brand before its hallowed name.

For many in racing the purchase of the formerly state owned Tote betting company was a bad dream that left racing without the organ that would otherwise have provided its financial heart and salvation. The more pragmatic realise that British racing's downward spiral would continue unabated even if they had managed to loosen the self-made Mr Done's steely grip from the prize. As always, badly-run UK racing failed to impress their case and the company was sold to the highest and most suitable commercial bidder. Sold for a little over a quarter of a billion pounds, it was a bargain of daylight robbery proportions that fell the way of the ever-shrewd Betfred Bookmaker.

But back in 1960, a year before it all became legal, Fred Done was already in the business. Even this fiercely ambitious youngster could not have known the heights to which he would take his company. When the game turned legitimate he started his first betting shop. It is truly a story of a company that started with nothing. Fred heralds from the North West, and that is where he grew his business, organically. Then later on he bravely bought a couple of small bookmaker chains. He realised growth by acquisition was the only way forward and his biggest prize to date has been The Tote. If a bookmaker was going to get the Tote, surely better a gritty entrepreneurial independent with a gambling nature than the faceless accountants of the big public betting companies. Now Betfred has nearly 1400 outlets on the high streets of Britain, and it will not stop there.

He was quite late to the online arena, but that is often a clever move. Done knew he had the marketing muscle to quickly catch up the deficit and he had learned not to make the mistakes some notable early movers, such as Coral and Sportingbet, did. With a call centre established earlier than that, Dones, as they were once called, now has the full gamut: shops, website, online casino, bingo and poker.

Fred Done can look back on a job well, erm, done with his firm. But that is not his style. He looks forward and ever upwards in his quest to make the good name of Betfred Bookmaker even bigger.