Top 15 Oldest Bookmakers and Gambling Brands in the UK

Britain has some of the oldest continuously trading gambling names anywhere, which takes some explaining, because for most of that period the activity was illegal, heavily restricted, or both.

The explanation is a loophole. Credit betting stayed legal after the Betting Houses Act 1853 closed cash betting shops, so firms serving wealthy account customers could trade openly while everyone else placed bets in the street. Several of the names below were built in exactly that gap.

Ordered oldest first. Founding dates for businesses this old are frequently approximate, and several of these brands have changed hands so often that the name and the company behind it now share little beyond the sign.

The oldest UK bookmakers at a glance

*Each entry is explained in full below.*

How we ranked the oldest UK bookmakers

Ordered by the earliest founding date of the brand rather than the current corporate entity. Where a name has been acquired, revived or transferred between owners, we date the brand and note the discontinuity.

The 15 oldest UK bookmakers in detail

1. Crockfords, 1828

William Crockford was a fishmonger who became one of the wealthiest men in London through gaming, which tells you something about how much money moved across the card tables of Regency St James’s. The club he opened there became the most celebrated gentlemen’s gaming room in Britain.

It’s generally described as the oldest surviving casino brand in the world, with the caveat that the club has moved, closed, reopened and changed hands several times across nearly two centuries.

Its modern incarnation in Mayfair remains one of the best-known private casinos in London, and it has featured in high-profile litigation over disputed winnings. A club can be extremely old and entirely contemporary in its problems.

2. Ladbrokes, 1886

Began as commission agents working from Ladbroke Hall in Worcestershire, taking bets on horses for wealthy clients. The name comes from the building, not a founder.

Ladbrokes spent its first seventy-five years as a credit bookmaker serving account customers, which was perfectly legal while cash betting was not. So when betting shops arrived in 1961 the firm already had the customers, the systems and the reputation. It moved onto the high street fast.

Now part of Entain, where it sits alongside Coral. Two of the oldest names in British bookmaking under one owner.

3. Littlewoods, 1923

John Moores and two partners founded it in Liverpool, and built the football pools into something that’s genuinely hard to picture now: a weekly ritual in millions of British households, filled in at the kitchen table.

The pools occupied their own legal category, distinct from a bookmaker’s bet, which is why they could operate as a mass-participation product at a time when almost nothing else could.

The National Lottery arrived in 1994 and took both the role and most of the audience within a few years.

4. Vernons, 1925

Littlewoods’ great rival, also Liverpool, and the other half of a duopoly that dominated British popular gambling for fifty years.

Between them the two firms employed thousands of people, overwhelmingly women, in the vast coupon-checking halls the pools required before computerisation. That was a significant employer in Liverpool for decades.

Vernons survives as a brand under later ownership. The business it once represented doesn’t exist in any recognisable form.

5. Coral, 1926

Joe Coral was a Polish-born bookmaker who started on the greyhound tracks and built one of Britain’s largest chains from there.

It’s one of the few major British gambling names still trading under its founder’s actual surname, and one of the very few whose origin story really does begin with one man taking bets at a track.

Now part of Entain, following the Ladbrokes Coral merger.

6. The Tote, 1928

Unusual company on this list, because Parliament created it. The Racecourse Betting Control Board was established to run pool betting on horse racing, with proceeds returning to the sport.

The logic was that pool betting, where the operator takes a fixed commission and bettors compete against each other, was preferable to the illegal cash betting flourishing on the streets. Rather than suppress the demand, redirect it somewhere the state could see.

It stayed in public ownership for more than eighty years before being sold in 2011, and the brand still trades.

7. Mecca, 1930s

Started as a dance hall company and moved into bingo once the Betting and Gaming Act 1960 made commercial bingo clubs possible. A good number of Mecca bingo halls are literally former ballrooms, which explains the architecture in a lot of British town centres.

Mecca Bingo became one of the two dominant names in the sector and now sits inside the Rank Group.

Three entirely different businesses under one brand across ninety years, from dancing to bingo to online. Unusual even by the standards of this list.

8. William Hill, 1934

Founded in London by William Hill himself, initially as a credit and postal bookmaker, because cash betting shops were still illegal.

Hill was famously against betting shops when they were legalised in 1961, reportedly regarding them as squalid, and the firm entered the market later than its rivals as a direct result. A rare case of a founder’s personal distaste measurably costing his company market position.

The brand became one of the largest bookmakers in Britain and is now owned by evoke plc, formerly 888 Holdings.

9. Rank, 1937

The Rank Organisation began in film production and cinema, and the gong-striking man is still one of the most recognisable British corporate images of the twentieth century.

Gambling arrived through leisure diversification. The modern Rank Group is now primarily a gambling business, operating Grosvenor Casinos and Mecca Bingo.

The clearest example here of a name that came into gambling from somewhere else entirely and then stayed.

10. Stanley Leisure, 1958

Founded in Liverpool and grown into one of the largest betting shop chains in Britain, with a substantial casino operation alongside it.

The retail estate went to William Hill in the mid-2000s and the casinos went to Genting, which is why a business that was genuinely large for decades has left almost no trace on the high street.

11. Aspinalls, 1962

John Aspinall had been running illegal high-stakes private games in London houses. The Gaming Act 1960 made a licensed club possible, and he moved the whole operation into legitimacy more or less overnight.

Aspinalls became one of the defining Mayfair casinos of the period and still operates in Curzon Street.

Aspinall himself remains among the stranger figures in British gambling history, mostly because of the parallel career founding zoos.

12. The Clermont Club, 1962

Also Aspinall, this time in a Berkeley Square townhouse designed by William Kent, and probably the most storied gambling room in Britain.

Its membership in the 1960s contained an extraordinary concentration of the British establishment, and the club is permanently attached to the disappearance of Lord Lucan in 1974.

What it really represents is a very brief window. After the 1960 Act, high-stakes private gambling became legal, fashionable and essentially unregulated by any modern standard. The Gaming Act 1968 closed the window.

13. The Playboy Club London, 1966

Opened on Park Lane and became one of the most commercially successful casinos in Europe within a few years, combining a licensed gaming floor with the Playboy brand at the peak of its cultural reach.

The original club closed in 1981 after losing its gaming licence. The name came back to Park Lane in 2011 under new operation.

It’s included for two reasons. For roughly fifteen years it was among the most significant casino operations in the country, and its licence loss is an early example of British regulation removing a major operator outright.

14. Betfred, 1967

Fred and Peter Done opened their first shop in Salford, reportedly funded by winnings from a bet on England to win the 1966 World Cup. Whether that’s precisely true or has improved with retelling, it’s the best origin story on this list.

Betfred grew into one of the largest independent bookmakers in Britain and remains privately held by the Done family. That makes it genuinely unusual here, since almost everything else has been absorbed into a listed group.

The firm also held the Tote licence for a period after the 2011 privatisation.

15. Grosvenor Casinos, 1970

The Rank Group’s casino brand and the largest casino operator in Britain by number of venues, with properties in most major cities.

Grosvenor is the post-1968 model made visible: casinos as regulated, vetted, mass-market venues rather than private clubs for the wealthy.

Worth putting next to entry twelve. The Clermont and Grosvenor were founded eight years apart and belong to completely different worlds.

Why so many British gambling brands are this old

Two legal accidents account for most of it.

The credit betting loophole is the first. After 1853, cash betting was illegal and credit betting wasn’t, so a firm serving account customers could trade openly for a century. Ladbrokes and William Hill both spent their formative decades in exactly that position, which is precisely why they were ready when shops were legalised in 1961.

The pools exemption is the second, allowing Littlewoods and Vernons to run a mass-participation gambling product when almost nothing comparable was permitted.

Neither business model could be created today. Both produced companies that outlived the conditions making them possible.

How much of the original business survives out of the oldest UK bookmakers

Very little, in most cases. The brands persist. The companies behind them have been bought, merged, split and refinanced repeatedly.

Ladbrokes and Coral sit inside Entain. William Hill sits inside evoke. Grosvenor and Mecca sit inside Rank. Stanley’s retail estate went to William Hill and its casinos to Genting.

Betfred is the exception, still privately held by the family that founded it.

Conclusion: what the oldest UK bookmakers have in common

Two things, and neither is what you’d expect.

The first is that almost none of them started as what they are now. Ladbrokes served aristocrats on credit. Mecca ran dance halls. Rank made films. Crockfords was a private club for men who could lose an estate in an evening. The businesses that survived weren’t the ones that got gambling right in 1886 or 1930. They were the ones positioned to move when the law shifted underneath them, which it did roughly every thirty years.

The second is that survival and continuity aren’t the same thing. Thirteen of these fifteen names now belong to somebody who didn’t found them, and in several cases the brand is the only original component left. Entain owns two of the oldest names in British bookmaking. Rank owns two more. What you’re looking at is less a list of old companies than a list of old signs.

Which makes Betfred the genuine outlier, and worth noticing for that reason rather than its age. It’s the only one on this list where the family that opened the first shop still owns the business.

Oldest UK bookmakers: frequently asked questions

What is the oldest bookmaker in the UK?

Ladbrokes, founded in 1886, is generally regarded as the oldest surviving British bookmaker. Crockfords dates from 1828 but began as a gaming club rather than a bookmaker.

When was William Hill founded?

In 1934, initially as a credit and postal bookmaker because cash betting shops were illegal at the time. The firm entered the betting shop market relatively late after legalisation in 1961.

What is the oldest casino in Britain?

Crockfords, founded in 1828 by William Crockford on St James’s Street, is usually described as the oldest surviving casino brand in the world, though it has moved and changed ownership many times.

Are Ladbrokes and Coral the same company?

They’re separate brands owned by the same group, Entain, following the Ladbrokes Coral merger. Both continue to trade under their own names.

Why were football pools so popular?

They sat in a legal position that allowed mass participation at a time when most cash betting was illegal, and they were cheap to enter. The National Lottery took most of their audience after 1994.

Is any major UK bookmaker still family owned?

Betfred, founded by Fred and Peter Done in Salford in 1967, remains privately held by the founding family. That’s unusual among the largest British operators.

Responsible gambling

Gambling should be treated as paid entertainment and never as a way to make or recover money. Set deposit and loss limits before you play. Free, confidential support is available at BeGambleAware.org and on the National Gambling Helpline, 0808 8020 133. GAMSTOP lets you self-exclude from every UK licensed online operator at once.

Sources

• Company histories published by the operators named
• Gambling Commission: public register of licensed operators
• gov.uk: Betting Houses Act 1853, Betting and Gaming Act 1960, Gaming Act 1968