BetTom taps Goodwin Racing expertise to build ‘relatable’ brand

Paul Colley, CEO of BetTom, is leveraging the experience and talent of his previous employer Goodwin Racing, where he helped build and operate the BetGoodwin site.

New UK betting brand BetTom launched its online betting and iGaming platform in the UK in May, in partnership with supplier EveryMatrix,

Colley spent 11 years at Goodwin Racing, working closely with founder Julian Head. His co-founding partner for BetTom is Julian’s son Tom Head, while Julian’s other son Ed and their mother Susan also maintain ownership in the company. The team at BetTom is now into double digits, he says.

“I’ve nicked a load of staff from Goodwin,” says Colley. “They were actually really helpful with that because they just said they would replace the staff.”

On his time at Goodwin Racing, he says transitioning to online from the operator’s legacy telephone betting serving was a steep learning curve.

“I managed the online operation and learned a lot about how it’s done, the contacts you need, and every piece of the puzzle. If I had started BetTom without that experience, I wouldn’t have had a clue what I was doing,” Colley tells iGB.

Jockeying for position

Despite the UK being a mature and challenging market to navigate, Colley believes his experienced team will give BetTom an edge over other start-ups.

“You need a few things coming into this market, an experienced team and a good product,” he says. “[A new operator] can’t turn up and have things like next day withdrawals, because player expectations have changed. You need to have bet builders and cash-out options, all the things customers expect in the current climate.

“The market is saturated, and you’re up against big bonus offers, so it’s hard. But if you have an idea and a good product, you have a chance.”

‘Compliance should not be automated’

Compliance is at the top of Colley’s priority list, and while many of the more established operators move to automate many of their processes, he believes compliance processes should be fully manual.

“It’s all about looking after players, and compliance is our biggest department now. It has to be manual work and can’t be automated. Using these websites for 20 years has helped me understand what we need to be offering,” he adds.

Knowing the BetTom customer

BetTom is not expecting to compete against tier-one operators, but Colley says his aim is for BetTom to be a “relatable” brand, with a reputation for being customer-friendly.

“Nowadays, you can bet with an operator for years and you’re just a number. It can take them seven days to even send you a response. That’s how we’re going to change things. The customers will get to know us and we’re going to help them straight away. I think players will find us relatable,” Colley says.

““I’m prudent and sensible, so I’m not going to say we’ll be the next Paddy Power, but if we could grow by two or three times, we would be happy with that.

“It’s a big industry and we want a modest piece of the pie. We want to keep growing but we will be realistic about it. For now, the main thing we want to be is a respected operator with recreational customers that trust us to give them a frictionless journey.”

The gambling tax hike issue

The UK is becoming increasing difficult for smaller operators to navigate, as they grapple with enhanced player protection rules like financial risk checks, which limit spending for UK customers.

One of the founder’s main concerns is the impact of a potential gambling tax hike that could follow the government’s consultation on consolidating the current tax regime.

The UK currently has three taxes in place: a 21% remote gaming duty; general betting duty at 15%; and a pool betting duty at 15% of net stake receipts.

The racing industry is particular concerned a single increased betting tax could seriously impede the sector. The Treasury is expected to provide an update on this in its Autumn budget.

Establishing a new brand amid this uncertainty was a risk and Colley says he is concerned about the future.

“Costs keep going up, such as tax and data rights. That makes it harder and harder and our industry seems fair game to the government,” says Colley.

“We don’t yet know what our tax rates will be for five years. It is definitely a concern.”

Will horseracing survive the tax increase?

When it comes to horseracing, Colley is pessimistic operators will make on-course betting work in future. “On-track betting has been dying for years. COVID did it no favours, and now every stand is cashless. It was always a hard game, but there’s too many books now and we have zero plans to do that. It’s all independents fighting over each other now, because the big names aren’t interested.”