Coral (bookmaker)

History

Foundation

Main article: Joe Coral

Joe Coral began his bookmaking business in 1926 and, although primarily concerned with operating betting pitches at racecourses, together with his friend Tom Bradbury-Pratt, he ran speedway meetings at Harringay and opened a credit office in the West End of London in 1943.{{cite web|url=http://find.galegroup.com/ttda/infomark.do?&source=gale&prodId=TTDA&userGroupName=oxfshlib&tabID=T003&docPage=article&searchType=BasicSearchForm&docId=IF500425309&type=multipage&contentSet=LTO&version=1.0

He had greyhound racing pitches at Harringay Stadium and then White City Stadium followed later by Clapton Stadium and Walthamstow Stadium before branching into betting offices.

He was one of the first to take advantage of the new legislation and opened his first licensed betting office in 1961. The new law was not intended to encourage betting and therefore shops were unattractive in appearance and devoid of any comforts.

Merger and growth

Coral arranged a merger with another bookmaker, Mark Lane in 1971. By 1979, the company had become the Coral Leisure Group and had diversified to include a variety of other businesses, including casinos, hotels, restaurants, Pontins holiday camps, squash clubs, bingo clubs, and real estate.

Corporate sale

With the business facing a number of difficulties, including the loss of three out of four of its casino licences, a sale was attempted to Grand Metropolitan in 1980, but this attempt failed and the following January a sale was achieved to Bass plc, as part of the Bass Leisure operation.

In September 1998, Bass sold Coral to the Ladbroke Group for £363 million. The UK Government, however, ordered Ladbroke to sell Coral after the Monopolies and Mergers Commission found that the acquisition was anti-competitive.

In November 1999, Coral acquired Eurobet, an online betting operation based in Gibraltar, for £7.1 million. The company changed its name to Coral Eurobet in May 2000. Coral Eurobet was then sold in a further management buy out in September 2002, which was backed by Charterhouse Development Capital.

In October 2005, Coral Eurobet was acquired for £2.18 billion by casino and bingo firm Gala, which changed its name to Gala Coral Group, creating the United Kingdom's third largest bookmaker and largest bingo operator. Coral and Eurobet continued to operate as divisions of Gala Coral.

In July 2009, Coral announced the relocation of their broadcasting department to Milton Keynes to a purpose built studio to manage the inception of its new television channel, Coral TV.

In November 2016, Gala Coral was acquired by Ladbrokes, which changed its name to Ladbrokes Coral. Coral and Ladbrokes shops continued to operate under their respective names. GVC Holdings acquired Ladbrokes Coral in March 2018.

Headquarters

In November 2011, Coral announced they had signed for 30,793 sq ft of offices at One Stratford Place at Westfields £1.45bn Stratford City scheme opposite the Olympics stadium in east London.

Marketing and advertising

As part of their 2012 experimental marketing campaign strategy, Coral engaged in the ‘RUN 4 IT’ campaign, requiring brand ambassadors dressed in trademark robber costumes, to physically ‘steal’ customers from competitor bookies. Over the course of this three week campaign, punters were encouraged to change their betting habits with the lure of a guaranteed win loyalty card and then walked by the ambassadors to the nearest Coral. This campaign saw a 7% conversion rate and 2,447 customers were ‘stolen’ from 900 bookies.

References

References

1. John-Paul Ford Rojas. (24 July 2015). "Betting giants Ladbrokes and Coral merge to create UK's biggest bookmaker - but will it close stores and axe jobs?". The Daily Mirror.
2. (2011). "The Palgrave Dictionary of Anglo-Jewish History". [[Palgrave Macmillan]].
3. Genders, Roy. (1975). "The Greyhound and Racing Greyhound". Page Brothers (Norwich).
4. Genders, Roy. (1981). "The Encyclopedia of Greyhound Racing". Pelham Books Ltd.
5. (11 June 1980). "Limited Report and Accounts 1979". Coral Leisure Group.
6. Fisher, Andrew. (18 October 1980). "Coral gambles for time over £84m bid". Financial Times.
7. Francisco Guerrera. (23 September 1998). "DTI bars Ladbroke from buying Coral". The Independent.
8. Eibhir Mulqueen. (23 December 1998). "Irish Coral shops not part of Ladbroke sell-off". Irish Times.
9. (10 March 1999). "Listing particulars". Ladbroke Group.
10. (25 February 2000). "Coral aiming for £1bn flotation". Financial Times.
11. (24 September 2000). "Report and Accounts". Coral Eurobet.
12. (24 September 2000). "Report and Accounts". Coral Eurobet.
13. (3 August 2002). "Coral chain bought in MBO for 860m pounds". The Scotsman.
14. (7 October 2005). "Casino group Gala snaps up Coral". BBC.
15. "Annual Report for 2007". Gala Coral Group.
16. (27 October 2009). "New systems integration team builds state-of-the-art production facility for UK bookmakers". SIS News.
17. (1 November 2016). "Ladbrokes Coral Group – Completion of Merger". Ladbrokes Coral Group.
18. Barber, Bill. (31 October 2016). "Coral-Ladbrokes merger completes on Tuesday". [[Racing Post]].
19. Davies, Craig. (29 March 2018). "GVC Holdings completes long awaited Ladbrokes Coral acquisition". SBC News.
20. (1 November 2011). "Westfield books Coral for Stratford HQ". Costar.
21. "Coral Experiential Marketing Results". iD Experiential.