Bet365’s Latest Profit Doubles, Sets Aside GBP100 Million for Charitable Foundation
As Bet365’s Latest Profit Doubles, Founder Sets Aside GBP100 Million for Charitable Foundation
Following the announcement of earning pre-tax profits of £319 million for the fiscal year 2013-2014, Bet365 founder Denise Coates announced that more than £100 million has been set aside as additional funding for the Bet365 charitable foundation. This year’s pre-tax figure is actually more than twice the £148 million total earned from the previous period, and has already taken into account the betting company’s £4.9 million loss incurred as a major investor of the Stoke City Football Club.
About the Bet365 Foundation
The Bet365 Foundation, which was founded in December 2012, provides support to local, national, and international charity groups such as Cafod, Oxfam International, the Douglas Macmillan hospice for local cancer sufferers in Stokes, international disaster relief operations, and community improvement projects. Actually, Bet365 has donated millions of pounds through the Bet365 Foundation, in order to make a difference in the lives of people in need. The donations include those provided as university scholarships and theatre funding.
The most recent international support extended by the Bet365 Foundation was for the post-Typhoon Haiyan cleanup operations in the Philippines, and the school-building project for the street children of Sierra Leone. Through the St. Joseph’s College in Trent Vale, which has been sending students and teachers in Sierra Leone since 2007, the Bet365 Foundation committed £230,000 to put an end to what St. Joseph calls a ‘sticking plaster’ approach. The money will be used to build new classrooms, purchase modern educational equipment, resource materials, a generator, and a minibus as well as to install fresh water well.
About Bet365 under the New UK Gambling Act Regime
As a leading bookmaker operating in Europe and other countries across the globe, Bet365 has no issues regarding the 15 percent licencing duty, which the UK government is set to impose on all online gambling operators. This is mainly because the bookmaking company holds a licence issued by the UK Gambling Commission from the very onset of its operations and has been dutifully paying the British government the 15 percent licencing fees and other business related taxes from the very start.
In fact, Bet365 is one of three Gibraltar Betting and Gaming Association members who withdrew support for the legal action launched against the new UK Gambling Licencing and Advertising Act 2014. The other two GBGA members who took the same position are William Hill and Ladbrokes.
Earlier this month, the UK Gambling Commission reported that based on their investigations, Bet365’s anti-money laundering and social responsibility controls showed potential weaknesses and shortcomings as far as the operator’s approach to combating such risks is concerned. Bet365 has acknowledged the findings and is currently taking steps to make certain that the UKGC’s concerns are addressed effectively.
Matthew Hill, the Director of Regulatory Risk and Analysis at UKGC said, Bet 365’s case demonstrates just how much work the gambling industry still has to do before it properly recognises customers at risk.” “But the investment of the significant funds given up by the operator into research, including into the development of predictive data analytics, to benefit customers and the industry as a whole, has the potential to deliver a positive outcome.”
