Betfair - History

History

The company was founded in 2000 by Andrew Black and Edward Wray who subsequently won the Ernst and Young Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year award. In 2003, the company was one of about 50 recipients of the Queen's Awards for Enterprise in the Innovation category.

In October 2005 chief executive Stephen Hill announced his resignation when the board decided not to proceed with plans for a stock market flotation, the investors holding out for a higher valuation.

In November 2005 the Tasmanian government announced a deal to licence Betfair in the state. It was the second licence awarded to Betfair outside the UK - the first being in Malta with subsequent licences following in Austria and Germany - and Tasmania now receives substantial tax revenues. However it infuriated the established monopolistic totalisators and bookmakers (due to loss of revenue) and governments (due to loss of taxes) in the other Australian states. A ban on the use of betting exchanges took effect in Western Australia on 29 January 2007, with Betfair successfully claiming this new law violated the Constitution of Australia.

In a unanimous verdict by the High Court of Australia on 27 March 2008, the two provisions of the legislation, purporting to ban Western Australians from using a betting exchange and prohibiting an unauthorised business from using Western Australian race lists, were declared invalid as they applied to Betfair. The provisions were characterised as imposing a burden on interstate trade that was protectionist in nature, and therefore contravened section 92 of the constitution. The Court decision suggests, but leaves open, that a more narrowly drafted ban may have been allowed (e.g., banning people in Western Australia from laying "lose bets" on events held in Western Australia).

On 28 February 2006 Betfair launched a new interface, including current live scores of in-play soccer matches, jockey silks and horse form, and an "express view" in which only the currently available "back" odds are viewable. Despite claims of "dumbing down" from a group established customers on Betfair's forum, there was a significant increase in membership and deposits during the Cheltenham Festival.

Softbank purchased 23% of Betfair in early April 2006 valuing the company at £1.5 billion. In December 2006, Betfair completed the purchase of the horseracing publishing company Timeform (which traded under the name Portway Press Ltd).

In March 2007, Betfair launched its own Betfair Radio service, available via its website, on the telephone and elsewhere. This has now become Timeform Radio, broadcasting horse racing commentary and results.

Betfair won its second Queen's Award for Enterprise, this time for International Trade, in April 2008. It joined an elite group of multiple Queen's Award winners and was recognition of the fact that over half of all new customers now come from outside the UK and they account for 44% of all revenue.

In January 2008, Betfair acquired Macrovision's Television Games Network interactive TV horserace wagering service for $50 million in cash.

In November 2009, Betfair announced a deal with the New York Racing Association that allows Betfair's customers to start wagering immediately on Aqueduct's thoroughbred races.

Betfair floated on the London Stock Exchange with a stock symbol of BET on 22 October 2010 at £13, valuing the company at £1.4bn ($2.2bn).

In March 2011 the company moved some of its operations to Gibraltar to reduce the amount they paid in tax.

In March 2012, Betfair and Hollywood Park Racetrack enter into historic sponsorship, marketing & promotional agreement.