The Gospel according to Betfred

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The Gospel according to Fred The Red
by Bruce Millington

SO that's what Fred Done looks like. Who would have thought it? I jest, of course. We all know what Fred looks like because we've seen him in the Betfred adverts. Short on hair and long on smiles.

Some cynical souls suggest Fred must have ego issues to want to be pictured so often, but he insists it's purely a business decision.

“I want punters to know they are betting against a man, rather than a giant company like the big three,” he said. “There's no Mr Ladbrokes, and Mr Coral and Mr Hill are long gone. Besides, it's all a bit of fun. They had me dressed up as Spider-man the other week. Mind you, someone told me afterwards that we won't be able to do that come November when the Gambling Commission comes into operation.”

Fred doesn't like the Gambling Commission.
“Apparently they say it'll be encouraging children to gamble if I appear in our adverts dressed up as Spider-man. That really has annoyed me. They're making me feel like some sort of a bloody paedophile.”
And that's not the least of his problems with the new body that has been set up to regulate betting in the UK.

“They've added £1.25m to my overheads with all their regulations and stipulations and it's all totally unnecessary. I've even had to employ a compliance officer just to prove the company is straight. It's all a load of red tape and it's been put together by people who don't have a clue about the industry. They say it's designed to protect kids and reduce organised crime. "

“Organised crime? I've never known organised crime in all the years I've been in the game. Mind you, I can look after myself,” he added, completely without bravado, but in a way that suggested if he ever had encountered people trying to make life difficult when he was first building his empire on the mean streets of Manchester back in the 1960s he would have gotit sorted without needing to get on the phone to his compliance officer.

We're sitting in Fred's office, part of a refurbished former sports arena in a neat and tidy commercial estate in Birchwood, just between Warrington and Manchester where I've come to meet the man behind the smiley adverts and find out about his remarkable rise from humble beginnings to a regular spot on the Sunday Times Rich List.

And while Fred comes over a bit Victor Meldrew when the subject of the Gambling Commission crops up, he's generally every bit as genial as he appears to be in the adverts.

Moreover, if you see him today, certainly before 3pm, he's likely to be smiling like a lottery winner who has just been told Angelina Jolie wants his phone number.

Today is aproud day for Fred, as Manchester United, the team he adores as well as co-sponsors, contest the first FA Cup final at the new Wembley, of which he is the official bookmaker.

Surrounded by no fewer than 34 Betfred outlets, Fred the Red will take his seat along with ten family members to watch as the side led out by his close friend Sir Alex Ferguson take on Chelsea. And Fred will be taking on the Blues too.

“We're out to lay them,” he said. “We're joint best price and that's because I think United are going to beat them. I wouldn't want to watch Chelsea every week but their workrate is amazing and if I could have two of their players in the United team I'd go for Drogba and Essien rather than Terry and Lampard. But Ronaldo could be the difference. I honestly don't think we'd have won the title without him. I've been watching United since 1950 so I've seen many truly great players but I'd have to have Ronaldo in my all-time team. Imagine him and Best on each wing.”

But Fred's in no doubt who his absolute favourite is.
“Do you know, I still get a lump in my throat whenever I think of Duncan Edwards. I asked Sir Bobby the other day who the best he ever saw was and he said Di Stefano was the best he played against and Duncan was the best he'd played with."

“I'll never forget how I felt when I heard about the air crash. I was on a bus coming home from school.”

Who would have thought then that 49 years later Fred would be cheering on his beloved Red Devils in his capacity as one of their official sponsors and the owner of the fourth-biggest bookmaking company in the UK?
“It's going to be a very proud day,” he says. “I come from a poor background. I was born in Salford and raised in the Ordsall estate, which is a rough as you can get. To be a sponsor of United and the official bookmaker at Wembley, well, I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to it.”

So will he be scurrying round ensuring every pen in the company's on-site betting facilities is working?

“No. It'll be a family day. Myself and ten of the family will be there. All my kids are United fans and we are going there just to enjoy the occasion.”
Not that there is any guarantee that he won't be in for a nasty shock when he finds out how the company did on the match, as was the case after United's legendary 1999 Champions League triumph over Bayern Munich.

“I ran out of money on the plane coming back,” he recalls. “Everyone had backed United with me on the way out and I washaving to write out IOUs that they could take to the shops when they got home. Those two goals from Solskjaer and Sheringham cost me half a million, but I didn't mind.”
The deal to be Wembley's official bookie set Fred back more than double that amount, but he reckons it is money well spent.

“The big firms turned it down so I'm told, and then someone from the Football League approached me about it. We won't make any money out of the bookmaking side of it but it's worth it to get the company's name up there. It's the same with the Old Trafford deal.”

So what about the prices? Everyone is rightly indignant about the cost of fish and chips at the new stadium, but will there be similarly poor value on offer for those who want to augmenttheir viewing pleasure with a bet?
“Absolutely not,” Fred insists. “The prices at Wembley will be the same as the ones in all my shops. I know some football ground bookies exploit the fact that they have a captive audience but there's no way I would do that.”

Of greater concern to Fred than accusations of rip-offs is the task of staffing all 34 outlets. “It's a hell of a job,” he admitted. “We'll be sending staff from all over the country, including Newcastle, down there for the day. It's so important that the service is good.”

Fred's big on customer service. “I was talking to Chubby Chandler once and he said that although he had about 12 different betting accounts, he only ever used one because they offered the best customer service. So I went back and told everyone I wanted us to have unbeatable customer service and that from now on we were to do all we could to ensure the punters were happy .Mind you, if anyone tries to cheat us, they get nothing. And that'll always be the case.”

Fred's also big on making his shops as good as they can be (a straw poll suggests they are the shop of choice for many RPSPORT staff – it's the comfy sofas that swing it).

And while a few years ago you were aslikely to stumble across a branch of Harrods in Moss Side as you were a Betfred anywhere inside the M25, that's all changing now.

The burgeoning estate now amounts to 660 shops and counting – that's up from fewer than 300 four years ago – with new outlets opening at a rate of around two a week.

So what made the man who was known as Manchester's bookie finally decide to branch out?

“I have two regrets and one was that we did not expand sooner. The trouble is I was too parochial,” said Fred. “My whole life was focused on a 20-mile radius around Manchester. But then I bought nine shops in Newcastle and they went really well and I thought ‘if we can make these work, we can open up anywhere'.”

On the back of that moment of realisation, Dones became Betfred, a call centre opened up and a website spread the word internationally. From Salford to Shanghai, Fred Done has come a long way.

Now Fred, who operates not just Betfred in partnership with his brother Peter but also a travel business, and insurance and property companies, trails only Hills, Ladbrokes and Coral in terms of size.

“We've got more than a hundred shops more than the Tote, but I'm never going to be able to catch the other three. We just want to run a good business.”

So what was Fred's other regret?
“Not buying United,” he sighs. “I was offered a quarter share of the club for 200 grand around 25 years ago, but it wasn't the right time. Now, if I cashed in my chips here, I'd love to get my handson it.”

Fred's not entirely sure how much he'd get for his chips – “£400 million? 500?” – but what isn't in doubt is that there would be no shortage of takers if he did decide to sell up.

“We get these venture capitalists and private equity people knocking on the door all the time but the answer's always no,” he said.

“I couldn't be doing with a plc, going to all those meetings and having some guy with 50 quid's worth of shares quizzing me over why we lost a lump on a race at Kelso. Besides, I've got all the money I could possibly want. I can only eat three meals a day. I can only drive one expensive car at once. I travel by private jet."

“I don't need the hassle of having to answer to other people. I've got a beautiful family, good friends and been happy with the same woman since I was 15.”

So who will pack it all in first – Fred or Sir Alex?
“We both love what we do. I don't call this work. Coal miners work. People who put nuts on wheels in a Ford factory work. This game's great. I love it. I love the characters. The duckers and divers. The spivs. I reckon Alex will do another two or three years at Old Trafford. I might pack it in if something happened with my health or whatever but otherwise I think it's safe to say I'll probably die in this game.”

But given that this remarkable little man, who carries barely an ounce of overweight, ran the last of his 12 marathons only two years ago, clocked 3hrs 12min at the age of 50, and still seems filled with zest, you get the impression he will be around for a good while yet.

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