This story is sponsored by BetfairFormer Railtrack boss Gerald Corbett replaces Ed Wray as chairman of Betfair today, with Wray also standing down from the board of the company he co-founded 12 years ago.
Wray, a former JP Morgan trader, will however retain his place on the board of Betfair’s troubled financial trading platform LMAX. His standing aside as chairman was required to bring London-listed Betfair into compliance with the Combined Code on Corporate Governance. Wray remains the single largest shareholder in Betfair, with 10.62% of issued share capital.
The outgoing chairman said that it had been immediately apparent when launching the betting exchange with Andrew Black back in 2000 that it had changed the industry for the better, by providing new ways of punters to bet.
“I am extremely proud of everything that the company has achieved in the last 12 years and I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has been involved in the business for their contribution to its success.”
As CEO, Wray oversaw the London-based company become the dominant force in online exchange betting following its takeover of US rival Flutter in late 2001. This was achieved despite the company being started with just £1m raised from family and friends, compared to the US$44m of venture capital backing raised by Flutter across the pond.
The UK business’ focus on seasoned punters and software engineer Andrew Black’s model of allowing the aggregation of large bets with a number of smaller ones – Flutter’s only allowed for the matching of identical bets – were pivotal in Betfair building the crucial levels of liquidity needed to make the betting exchange model work and outstripping its better-funded US rival.
The London-floated betting exchange also this morning unveiled 11% year-on-year rise in revenue to £85m for the three months to 31 January. A boost was provided by its best-ever result from Australian Open tennis, the epic Nadal v Djokovic final culminating in £51m-worth of bets being taken, with the favourite changing 55 times over the course of the match. Mobile betting also performed strongly for Betfair in the last quarter, with bets up 127% year-on-year to 11 million, representing £5.8m of revenue.
Betfair also announced that it hoped to enter the Italian market with its betting exchange at the earliest opportunity, after the Italian goverment recently notified a decree to the European Commission that would legalise and regulate the model in Italy. Betfair, which currently runs a regular sportsbook off the Betfair.it domain in the country, said it hoped to introduce poker and other gaming products alongside this. The business has also applied for a licence in the breakaway northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, and Spain, where it has already started paying gaming tax in anticipation of the licence being awarded in the next few months, it announced this morning.
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Apple seem to be only allowing the app to be used in UK and Ireland where they see tbeting as fully regulated. Tabcorp in Australia also have permission. I think South Africa have regulated online tbeting so it’s up to Betfair to push it. Why not ask Betfair and let me know the reply. I’ll ask a few people I know at Betfair