The 10 most influential online gambling people this decade: 1 & 2

2) Denise Coates

Bet365

Reason: Denise

They say that truly famous people are only known by a single name, and in the world of online gambling there is only one real mononym. The woman, and indeed the firm, known simply as Denise. The co-founder and co-CEO of bet365 is truly iconic within the industry and her name commands a degree of respect it’s hard to accurately convey without sounding like it’s meant as a joke.

But nobody is joking about the dominance of bet365 in the past decade. This is a firm that began it with just over £300m in revenues and ended it with nearer £3bn and in the process both defined and led the way in so many areas of the business, from mobile, to in-play, to trading to those headline customer offers. They may not have invented cash out, but they damn sure did it best. And that philosophy is really at the heart of the bet365 business. Everything should be the best.

Their pricing and UX is always as near as it matters to industry-leading. They may not have been first to mobile, but they did it best. They may not always have been first to a new regulated market but when they entered, they usually owned it. So much so that markets they pulled out from or didn’t enter generally allow a local brand to spring up in their absence who looks and feels an awful lot like them, just usually with worse pricing. Imitation is the best form of flattery they say.

So, when people are pricing up a market and ask, what is Denise? It’s not meant as a joke. When people say what has Denise done when looking at product features, it’s not meant disrespectfully. She is renowned as being hands-on and her firm is very much built in her image and she has led her trading, technology and operational teams to set the standards the industry follows over the decade. They remain the firm everyone wants to catch, the firm everyone fears and nearly everyone wants to be.

To suggest bet365 is the work of one person is entirely wrong. Her brother and co-CEO John Coates is an often unsung but hugely important figure in that business, not least for his role in the strategy for marketing and regulatory aspects of the business. He along with the equally unsung efforts of head of international development Jon Moss has pushed bet365 into an amazing number of new markets including most of the major regulated nations without ever compromising what the business stands for.

Their contribution should be respected, and John Coates in particular should be regarded far more highly than he sometimes is within the industry. Although the low-key man who avoids the limelight probably won’t care one bit. But for the industry there is only one name that gets spoken of on a daily basis. And it’s hard to think of a person or a company that continues to influence the way others act or think in the sports betting sector than bet365. Who knows if that remains the case as we move into a new decade, but in many ways the last decade belongs to them. And to Denise Coates.

1) Kenny Alexander

GVC

Reason: The grey revolution

At the start of the decade Kenny Alexander was the boss of a firm that nobody paid much attention to with revenues of €55m. A business with a focus on markets nobody else much cared about, such as Germany and Brazil, and a focus on churning out high dividends for shareholders and letting tomorrow take care of itself. But in 2012 that all began to change.

Alexander, who was once the head of Europe for Sportingbet, took the opportunity to acquire his alma mater as part of a joint deal for the firm with William Hill who wanted the Australian and Spanish business. GVC took the rest, including a bunch of grey markets and a platform nobody else really wanted and the legend of King Kenny was about to begin.

He quickly turned around a Sportingbet business that looked on its last legs and revenues and the share price began to climb and the rest of the industry began to take notice. So too did the wider investment community. And they all saw one thing. While the wider industry had been focused on regulated markets they had been leaving a lot of money on the table elsewhere.

The risks of operating in grey markets simply didn’t outweigh the rewards, in fact it wasn’t even close. The issues of UIGEA and Black Friday had overblown the potential downside risks for most operators in European, Latin American or even Asian markets and the reverse ferret the entire industry did on this was a sight to behold. Today we see CEOs of even the largest firms talk of entering Japan, Canada or other grey markets as if it’s no big deal.

Kenny Alexander, GVC CEO

And the City is, broadly, fine with this. At least for now. That is arguably one of the largest changes in the sector we have seen this decade, and what is fascinating is that Kenny appears to be beginning to shift back in the other direction. The current GVC has divested of the Turkish business that fuelled some of its early post-Sportingbet growth, is pushing hard to make Germany and Brazil the next big regulated markets and generally cleaning up its act for a steady-state regulated future. No more live-fast and dividend-it-out young, but a long-term build for the future.

The reason for this is the other factor that makes Alexander sit at the top of this list. GVC is now a huge, sprawling international business built from three large M&A deals that somehow have all not collapsed in on themselves. Sportingbet was, of course, followed by the acquisition of bwin.party and the rather rapid and stunning turnaround that business, was arguably the story of the latter half of the decade. But Kenny wasn’t even done there.

Next came Ladbrokes Coral and while the jury is still out on if he can make that technology integration work post-Playtech, the recovery of the Ladbrokes brand in particular is proof he either has some deal with the devil or a magic touch. Or both. That we’re sitting in an online gambling sector where big mergers can actually work, with functioning revenue enhancing integration projects and that truly multi-national portfolios are seen as the only way to insulate against the wilds of gambling regulation is not unconnected to the rise and rise of King Kenny. And for that he has to be our number one influencer for this decade.

One last thing…a note on William Hill and other missing firms

There are some rather glaring omissions from this list, not least of which would be Ralph Topping at William Hill, Teddy Sagi and Mor Weizer from Playtech, Noel Hayden at Gamesys, Rafi Ashkenazi at The Stars Group and Isai Scheinberg. All of them have led businesses that have sat astride the sector and achieved huge things, generated big profits and really made an impact on the online gambling business in the period. But this list isn’t about who is the biggest or even the best, but who left more of a lasting legacy in terms of how the business is shaped at the end of the decade.

Hills for all its dominance in the early part of the decade is not the model everyone else is following as we head into 2020, and it’s not even the model William Hill itself is following. You could, and probably should, say its gaming business did have a big and lasting impact on the UK casino sector, in terms of showing the sports betting operators just how to run that vertical to maximise profits. William Hill Vegas, with its big marketing spend, exclusive content and huge revenues was a defining product for them and the UK sector in many ways but there is a risk of being a little too UK-centric in these lists.

In terms of other operators, Gamesys clearly defined the softer bingo-led model and then its sale and resale to Intertain/Jackpotjoy have been one of the larger stories of the decade, as were its forays into social gaming and Facebook RMG. But none of those really led anyone to follow in its footsteps. Playtech has re-positioned itself exceptionally well for the next decade after looking in a deeply problematic position in the middle of it and as a pure business leader Mor Weizer should be near the top of any list you want to compile, while you could say similarly for The Stars Group’s leadership team in terms of restructuring and refocusing that business. While for Isai it’s hard to look past Black Friday and the waning influence from then on, even if PokerStars was clearly one of the decade’s leaders in many ways.

And there are myriad other great business leaders and companies who don’t feature on this list from the large to the small. It’s not possible to mention everyone, and it’s not correct to assume that whoever is on this one should be viewed as the best or the only ones that matter. It is, also, only supposed to be a bit of fun and a way to look at some of the bigger trends we’ve seen this decade through a more personal lens. But it will be fascinating to see how many are remembered in another decade’s time.