THE BETFRED STORY

1967

It used the profit from betting on England to win the World Cup in 1966 to finance the first betting shop with Brother Peter in Ordsall.

1980

Fred became widely known as the Bonus King following his invention of the Lucky 15.

THE BRAND

Betfred has been one of the most established and respected businesses within the North West and the gambling industry for many years.

Our presence throughout the region has constantly multiplied with our development, alongside our successful expansion throughout the UK. Betfred is now one of the biggest and most well-known brands on the high street with over 1600 shops.

We have also taken considerable steps to expand our online and mobile business, and this progression continues at a significant pace. We take pride in our reputation of staying true to our core values; being a good company, providing real value, and delivering an exceptional and exciting experience. Betfred is a no-frills, no-nonsense bookmaker who offers more to its patrons than anyone on the high street or online.

As with any forward-thinking business, we are innovators within the betting sphere. Fred initially came up with the idea of the now hugely popular Lucky 15 bet, and to this day, we continue to come up with new ideas for bets. One of our most famous bets is Double Delight & Hat-Trick Heaven. This bet has been duplicated by many other bookmakers in recent years yet remains at heart a Betfred product.

BETFRED 50TH

In 2017, Betfred celebrated 50 years in business, marking the occasion by producing a documentary that covered the first shop opening in 1967, the brothers growing up in post-war Salford and Betfred’s journey from a small family business to becoming a UK ‘Big 4’ bookmaker. In addition to this, momentous events in the company’s history like when Frankie Dettori cost the industry a fortune when he rode all seven winners at Ascot; being the first-ever bookmaker to pay out early on Man United to win the league only for Arsenal to be crowned champions; and the protracted battle to buy the Tote from the Government all feature in the documentary.

“It’s a real nag to riches story but what hopefully comes across is that Betfred may be the biggest independent bookmaker on the high street, but it is very much a family affair,” said Betfred’s Head of Media Mark Pearson

SPONSORSHIP

Betfred is one of the most active sponsors of sport in and around the UK, with a wide variety of sports and tournaments under the famous red and blue banner.

In 2005 Betfred became sponsor of the Group One Sprint Cup at Haydock Park. The race is run over the minimum distance of five furlongs. The sponsorship ended in 2016, and we also sponsored the most prestigious National Hunt race, the Cheltenham Gold Cup, between the years of 2012 and 2015.

In 2017, Betfred began a three-year period as the title sponsor of Rugby League’s Super League. The league is the northern hemisphere’s premier Rugby League competition featuring 12 teams spread across England while also featuring the Catalans Dragons who are based in Perpignan, France. The season finishes with the Grand Final held at Old Trafford since 1998.

Betfred sponsored the World Snooker Championships between the years 2009-2012. In 2015, it was announced that we were to become the tournament’s sponsors once again and increase the winner’s prize money to £425,000.

In June 2017, Betfred was confirmed as the new official shirt sponsor of Championship side Bolton Wanderers in an agreement that would initially last for two years.