Irish bookie BoyleSports takes £100m punt on UK high streets
Ireland's biggest independent bookmaker has placed a £100 million bet on Britain's struggling high streets, with plans to open hundreds of new shops.
The family-owned BoyleSports, a staple on high streets in Ireland, wants to open 200 new shops and create 1,000 jobs in what its bosses say is the UK's under-appreciated market.
The move comes as BoyleSports is expected to be controversially unveiled as the new front-of-shirt sponsor at the Premier League football club West Ham United.
BoyleSports, which operates 390 shops across Ireland and the UK, was founded by John Boyle in 1982, who remains on the company's board as chairman. Some 70 outlets are in the UK at present.
The UK expansion will be funded by its shareholders, Vlad Kaltenieks, the company's chief executive, said.
The move may be viewed as counterintuitive given the retreat from the high street by the likes of William Hill, Coral and Ladbrokes in recent years as they concentrate on online gambling operations.
The number of betting shops has fallen every year for the past ten years, according to the Gambling Commission, although numbers dropped by only 1.4 per cent last year. The pandemic had a profound impact: some 1,808 shops have closed since Covid-19 hit, the equivalent of one in five of the number of shops pre-lockdown.
UK bookmakers have instead turned their attention to US online markets, where sports betting is being legalised on a state-by-state basis. With America expected to be the world's biggest regulated market, UK betting companies have used their online expertise to partner with American firms.
Kaltenieks said that this had resulted in UK betting shops becoming an under-appreciated market.
Like other firms operating in the UK, BoyleSports was fined £2.8 million by the Gambling Commission in 2020 for failing to comply with money-laundering risk assessments.
Kaltenieks said that it complies with all legal requirements, and that compliance was one of the firm's priorities. It is precisely because the UK is heavily regulated that makes the new investment attractive, he added.
'The UK is one of the most exciting, well-regulated and competitive betting landscapes in the world, and we believe we offer something genuinely different to customers,' he said.
'As a family-owned, independent business, we've built a loyal customer base in Ireland by focusing on trust, service and a seamless experience and now we're rolling that approach out even more widely across the UK.'
There has been speculation over a potential tie-up with West Ham United over the past few weeks. The company declined to comment on such a deal, though it is understood that the club could unveil the new sponsorship deal as early as this week.
Premier League teams have agreed to withdraw gambling sponsorship from the front of their matchday shirts by the end of the upcoming 2025-26 season following a campaign by gambling industry critics.
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