A bookie who hedges his bets
Not many successful entrepreneurs joined the family business when it was still illegal. But Fred Done, 61, chairman of Betfred, Britain's biggest independent bookmaker, can still remember when he was a runner for his father, collecting bets from Manchester's factories and pubs. One of the few overheads was a backhander to the police.
“My Dad was a good bookmaker, but a bad businessman,” remembers Mr Done. Watching his father's business had made him streetwise and by the age of eight he was developing a flair for what bets to take and what to give away. Mr Done and his younger brother Peter opened their first betting shop in 1967, shortly after off-course bookmaking was legalised. For the next 30 years the business grew modestly. It was a rule never to buy a betting office more than 20 miles from home. “It was a weakness. I was too parochial,” says Mr Done. The big breakthrough came with the acquisition of eight betting shops in Newcastle upon Tyne. “I thought if I can run Newcastle, why not Bournemouth and Plymouth?”, recalls Mr Done. Over the past six years, the group's network of betting offices has risen to 450, and the plan is to have 800 offices by 2008.
Today, Mr Done and Peter, 57, own Done Brothers (Cash Betting), one of the UK's top five bookmakers, which has recently been re-branded as Betfred. Over the past two years its revenues have more than doubled, to ￡559m ($1.04bn), and pre-tax profits jumped from ￡1m to ￡10.4m in the year to end-March 2004. The brothers have also built up Peninsula Business Services, the UK's largest health and safety and employment law consultancy with 14,000 customers. They set it up 20 yearsago after losing a tribunal case over a dismissed employee. Last year, its revenues rose 15 per cent to ￡36.6m: “If you watch what is coming out of Brussels in terms of new employment, health and safety laws, this has to be a growth business,” says Mr Done.
Peninsula spawned Irwell Insurance, a captive insurer covering Peninsula's customers. Its net profits trebled last year to ￡669,000. Sports Tours International, which operates tours for sports people, was rescued from bankruptcy, and the group has added a finance company and ￡30m-worth of properties.
There are no obvious synergies between the various businesses, but all are profitable. “We are in it for the long term,” says Mr Done. Nevertheless, he turns 62 next month and with homes in Knightsbridge and Dubai and an estimated family fortune of ￡90m, he could be forgiven for winding down ahead of retirement. In fact, Mr Done is stepping up expansion. Last month's opening of a betting shop in London's Leicester Square signalled his determination to shed his image as a Manchester bookmaker and compete directly with Ladbroke, William Hill and Coral the UK's big three bookmakers in the more prosperous south of England. Betfred.com, an internet betting and casino gaming operation, taking bets in 15 currencies and 15 languages, starts shortly.
Mr Done is a throwback to when bookmakers were run by colourful characters. However, the bookmaking industry has undergone far-reaching changes since the old days: it has been consolidating around ever-larger professionally managed groups.
While attention is focused on the fast-growing online bookmakers, Betfred'straditional bookmaking operations have quietly been growing. Indeed, the rapid expansion of its retail betting operation is at odds with the consensus that the industry's long-term growth lies in internet betting. Andrew Lee, of DKW Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, believes the threat frombetting exchanges and online gambling has beenoverdone. “They have not really cannibalised existing forms of gambling yet, nor will they do so in the immediate future.” It is a new phenomenon that is attracting new customers and providing additional revenue for incumbent betting shop operators. Mr Lee says that Betfred's short-term growth strategy makes sense: “Scale is important in this industry.” Although Betfred now ranks as one of the industry leaders, it remains very much a family business. While Mr Done no longer sets the odds for the bookmaking operations; that is left to a team of traders. He does not have a finance director, since all financial information flows directly to him. “Nobody in this business signs a cheque other than me,” he says. Mr Done makes it sound simple. When buying a competitor, he is more interested in the position of the shops than its financial health. “If you have the right spot, give the right service and the right odds, the rest is yours,” says Mr Done. However, big changes are under way in traditional bookmaking.
Horseracing used to account for 90 per cent of Betfred's business; now it is less than 50 per cent. Soccer is now much bigger than horseracing in international betting, and a third of some rivals' revenues are now being generated by computer-driven races, casino games and poker matches an area where Betfred is a late entrant. “The online poker market did not exist until 2000 and now it is a $15bn market growing at 30 per cent a year,” observes Mr Done, who is investing heavily in this area. Building a profitable customer base in this area can be costly. For example, last October Sportingbet paid ￡169m to buy Paradise Poker, one of the four biggest internet poker sites.
Yet this is a gamble Fred Done believes he can win. If he gets it wrong, Betfred could be swallowed by a big competitor. But if he wins, there is a chance that Fred Done could instead end up buying a big player. It would be a fitting end to his career.
一位善于下注的企业家
在博彩业还没合法化之前就已涉足家族博彩企业的成功企业家并不多。但是，英国最大的独立博彩公司Betfred的董事长、61岁的佛瑞德?都恩(Fred Done)还记得他去曼彻斯特的工厂和酒吧为父亲收赌账的情形。在极少的日常费用中，有一部分用于贿赂警察。
“我爸爸是一个能干的庄家，但却是一个糟糕的商人，”都恩先生回忆说。照看父亲的生意赋予他在大城市中生存的能力。到8岁时，他已具备了判断赌什么、放弃什么的本领。
1967年，场外博彩业合法化后不久，都恩先生和弟弟彼得(Peter)开办了他们的第一家博彩店。在以后30年中，业务得到一定发展。公司的原则是决不收购离家超过20英里的博彩店。“这是一个弱点，当时我太狭隘了，”都恩先生说。
在收购了泰恩河畔纽卡斯尔的8家博彩店后，重大突破随之而来。“我想，如果我能经营纽卡斯尔的博彩店，那我为什么不能尝试博内茅斯和普利茅斯呢？”都恩先生回忆说。近6年来，该集团网络中的博彩店已增至450个，并计划到2008年扩大至800家。
如今，都恩先生和57岁的彼得是“都恩兄弟现金博彩公司”的所有人。该公司已跻身于英国五大博彩公司行列，并于最近更名为Betfred。
近2年来，公司收入增加了1倍多，达5.59亿英镑(10.4亿美元)；在截止2004年3月的财政年度，税前利润从100万英镑增至1040万英镑。都恩兄弟还创办了“半岛企业服务公司”(Peninsula Business Services)，这是英国最大的健康安全和劳工法咨询公司，拥有客户1万4千人。20年前，他们在一场官司中输给一名遭解雇的员工，之后就创办了该公司。去年，公司收入增至3660万英镑，增幅达15%。“如果你关注布鲁塞尔最新出台的就业、健康和安全法，这肯定是一个增长行业，”都恩先生说。
作为半岛的子公司，“Irwell保险公司”是一家仅向半岛客户提供服务的专属保险公司。去年，公司净利润增加2倍，达66.9万英镑。集团将专为运动人士安排旅行的Sports Tours International从破产边缘挽救回来。此外，集团还新增了一家金融公司和价值3000万英镑的房产。
各企业之间没有明显的协同效应，但都能盈利。“我们着眼于长期发展，”都恩先生说。但到下个月，他就62岁了。他在伦敦骑士桥和迪拜均有住所，家庭资产估计已达9000万英镑。即使他想在退休前放慢脚步也是情有可原的。但事实上，都恩先生正在加快业务拓展的步伐。上月在伦敦莱斯特广场开张一家博彩店，标志着他决心摆脱曼彻斯特博彩公司的形象，而在更为繁荣的英格兰南部与英国三大博彩公司立博(Ladbroke)、威廉希尔(William Hill)和科拉尔(Coral)正面交锋。不久将开通的博彩网站Betfred.com接受的赌注包括15种货币和15种语言。
都恩先生本人俨然是昔日博彩业风云人物的写照。但当今的博彩业与往日相比，早已发生了深远的变化：它一直朝着专业管理集团的方向整合，规模越来越大。
尽管人们关注的焦点集中在迅速发展的博彩网站上，但Betfred的传统博彩业务一直在静悄悄地增长。事实上，Betfred零售博彩运营的飞速扩张，与该行业的前途在于网上博彩这一普遍观点相抵触。
DKW(Dresdner Kleinwort Benson)的安德鲁?李(Andrew Lee)认为，来自博彩交易所和网上赌博的竞争威胁被过分夸大。“他们还没有侵蚀原有博彩形式的生意，短期内也做不到这一点。” 网上赌博是一种新现象，吸引着新的客户，并为现有博彩店运营商带来更多收入。李先生表示，Betfred的短期增长策略很有意义。他说：“规模在这个行业中相当重要。”
虽然目前Betfred是行业中的领军人物之一，但它在很大程度上仍是一个家族企业。都恩先生不再需要为庄家运营设定赔率，而是留给一批交易商处理。他没有财务总监，因为所有的财务信息都直接流向他。“公司里除了我之外，没人有权签署支票，”他说。都恩先生言简意赅。在收购一家竞争对手时，他更感兴趣的是店铺的地理位置，而不是财政状况。“如果你拥有优越的地理位置，并提供良好的服务和正确的赔率，那么其它都不在话下，”都恩先生说。
然而，传统的博彩业正发生重大的变化。赛马曾占Betfred业务的90%，而现在不足50%。目前，在国际博彩中，足球所占的份额比赛马大得多，而一些竞争对手的现有收入中有三分之一来自计算机操控的比赛、卡西诺游戏和扑克比赛，而Betfred在这些领域进入较晚。“网上扑克市场直到2000年才出现。现在这个市场已达到150亿美元，而且每年增幅为30%，”都恩先生说，他在这个领域投资巨大。在这个领域建立一个能够赢利的客户群成本很高。例如，去年10月，Sportingbet出资1.69亿英镑收购了四大扑克网站之一的Paradise Poker。
但这是一场佛瑞德?都恩相信自己会赢的赌博。如果他输了的话，Betfred可能会被一个强大的竞争对手吞并。但如果他赢了的话，佛瑞德?都恩最终将有机会收购一个强大的对手。这将为他的职业生涯画上一个圆满的句号。
