Brentford, Brighton and Hove Albion and Stoke City all have something in common: their owners owe their enormous wealth to the gambling business.
Matthew Benham – Brentford
Some might say that Brentford are punching well above their weight. They took decades to get back into the top flight of English football, and most pundits expected a quick return to the Championship. That’s not been the case, though, and it’s possible that next season might even see them playing in European competition. It’s one of the great London sports stories.
Matthew Benham doesn’t just own one football club. He also holds a majority shareholding in the Danish team Midtjylland who played in the Champions League this season. It’s all a bit surprising as his family are cricket lovers. It’s also surprising that someone with a degree in physics became rich by founding a gambling business.
Benham founded and owned Smartodds, which is right up your street if you appreciate using statistics. He went on to become an owner of the Matchbook betting exchange. Benham is renowned for being the king of analytics, which has helped him make plenty of right decisions over the years.
He’s always loved Brentford and famously played truant at school so he could see them play an away game at Nottingham Forest. Little could he imagine that one day he’d own the club and see them playing Forest in the Premier League. He probably didn’t think they’d beat Manchester United 4-0 at home one day, but they did.
His first investment in the Bees came in 2005, and two years later took over their loans. He gained full control of the club in 2012, and at that stage, Brentford were in League One. Not only has he seen them rise to the Premier League (they hadn’t been in the top flight in 74 years), but he also paid for a new ground. Now the club he loves has established themselves in the Premier League.
Tony Bloom – Brighton and Hove Albion
Another unfashionable clubs doing well in the Premier League are Brighton and Albion. The Seagulls had a great run in the FA Cup and could even qualify for the Champions League next season.
The club is owned by Tony Bloom, who used to be in business with Benham years ago at Premier Bet. Bloom is a renowned sports bettor and poker expert who learned all about the poker hand rankings before taking part in some of the UK’s biggest tournaments. Known as ‘The Lizard, ’ he’s won around $3.8 million playing poker.
It’s in the gambling world that he has made his millions. He’s in charge of a private betting syndicate that doesn’t know the meaning of failing to make a yearly profit.
He’s been the chairman of Brighton and Hove Albion since 2009. His family has long been associated with the club with his grandfather, Harry, the vice-chairman in the 1970s.
Like Brentford, Brighton had spent a long time outside of the top division. Bloom invested £93 million into creating their new ground, the Falmer Stadium. Success on the field saw them returning to the Premier League after a 34-year absence.
Since their return in the 2017-18 season, the Seagulls (though their ground is a long way from the sea) have gone from strength to strength. Even the loss of manager Graham Potter to Chelsea this season hasn’t stopped them. They look sure to beat the best-ever ninth-placed finishing position achieved last season.
Denise Coates’ Bet 365 company – Stoke City
Denise Coates CBE is the joint chief executive of Bet365, an online gambling company she founded in 2001. How her life has unfolded is not a major surprise. Her father is Peter Coates, a former chairman of Stoke City and director of Bet365.
Her family owned the Provincial Racing bookmaking company, and Denise began working for them. In time, she acquired other betting companies sold to Coral for £4 million.
Bet365 has become a massive success, as Ray Winstone may have mentioned a few times in the television adverts! Since 2015 the company has held a majority stake in Stoke City. They were relegated from the Premier League at the end of the 2017-18 season.
Their first four seasons back in the Championship saw a highest finish of just 14th. They won 5-1 at Sunderland on March 4 but are still only 16th in the table, so they are not quite the success Bloom and Benham have achieved.
Coates herself is thought to be one of Britain’s highest-paid bosses, taking home more than £200 million in 2022!
