Joe Coral Bookmakers
Posted : admin On 4/14/2022Like most of the established British bookmaker brands, Coral’s history began in the days before gambling was fully legalised and as such, much of the early operation was a ‘cloak and dagger’ affair. It all began via the company’s charismatic founder Joe Coral, who dropped out of school at a young age as he’d found something far more interesting to do.
Early Days: 1918 to 1926
Joe’s family emigrated to England from Poland in the early part of the 20th century and after the First World War, the youngster left school at the age of 14, eager to nurture his talent for mathematics. Initially he worked as a pay clerk for a company that manufactured lamps and while in their employ, he ran into a number of bookmakers who saw his potential.
Coral Bookmakers Uk
The Coral brand dates all the way back to 1926 when Joe Coral launched his first bookmaker. Beginning by offering betting services at racecourses, Coral bookies now has almost 2,000 land-based betting shops and a thriving online site. The Coral ambassador previews the Team Tizzard runners on Saturday With just two runners, from Newbury and Kelso, Joe also discusses the run-up to Cheltenham. “It’s a fairly quiet weekend for us, with just the five runners, but that’s not unusual as we get this close to Cheltenham. In December 2017, GVC Holdings agreed to buy Ladbrokes Coral in a deal that could be worth up to £4 billion. In January 2018, Ladbrokes Coral and the Scottish Professional Football League agreed to extend the betting company's sponsorship agreement until at 2020. The deal saw the bookmaker remain the principal sponsor of the top four divisions of Scottish football in a deal worth up to £5 million.
In this Review Odds & Markets Features Betting Shops About Coral are one of the UK high street giants, established in 1928 by Joe Coral. They operate over 1700 bricks and mortar betting shops but increasingly their business is operated online. They are licensed and regulated, like many of their rivals, in Gibraltar. After Joe’s retirement, Coral has gone through a myriad of acquisitions and mergers which ended in 2018 when the now named Ladbrokes Coral group was acquired by GVC Holdings. It created one of the largest global bookmakers that include Gala, Coral, Ladbrokes, Party Casino.
Joe Coral landed a side job as a bookies runner and collected bets on their behalf. It led to a parting of the ways with the lamp making firm but also sowed the seeds for what was to become one of the largest bookmaking operations in the world. Soon, it was time to start taking his own bets.
Coral is Born: 1926 to 1939
Having built up some experience in the betting industry, Joe started to accept bets at a local billiards hall in Stoke Newington and a year later, he had a legal betting business trackside at Harringey and White City greyhounds. It may not have been an official name at that early stage but effectively, the Coral organisation had been born.
The business blossomed and alongside the legitimate areas of the company, it is said that Coral had around 70 runners, employed to collect bets from pubs and shops across this area of London.
Bending the Rules: 1939 to 1960
In those days, Joe Coral and others who were operating an illegal side to their affairs had to stay on the right side of the law. He never landed in trouble for his bookmaking activities but instead, he was fined for a number of petty offences – including failing to notify a change of address and failing to register his marriage.
It was all very routine stuff for an industry which needed to be legitimised and to be allowed to come out into the open. Coral and his business partner Tom Bradbury-Pratt, continued to grow their business ‘against the odds’ until 1960’s Betting and Gaming Act came along and changed everything.
Flourishing: 1961 to 1970
Joe Coral was quick to react to the changes in the law and became one of the first to open a licensed betting shop – in 1961. More followed until the name became familiar on the High Streets of London and beyond. Coral’s main focus was on value and by laying large commissions, he attracted a large share of the new business that was available and became known as the best bet among his rivals.
Now that the whole industry was given an acceptable public face, this became an era of unprecedented growth. Coral set up as a limited company in 1963 and that saw them expand their physical presence into bingo halls, hotels and casinos. They saw very early on that the business wasn’t all about sports betting and these additional areas helped to drive them forward.
Moving On: 1971 – 1996
Coral Betting Shop, Pembroke Dock
As Coral expanded, the brewing company Bass moved in to buy out the firm, keeping Joe Coral on board as the President of the organisation. He eased back from the day to day running at this time but there was no easing off for the company as it expanded to build 650 betting shops by the end of the 1970s.
At that stage, although their shops were only seen in certain areas of the UK, they were firmly established as one of the four biggest bookmakers in the country. They continued to grow and are now one of the most recognised names in towns and cities all over Great Britain.
Sadly, Joe Coral passed away in 1996 but what a legacy he left as a true legend of the industry.
Changes: 1996 – Present
It will interest those who are following the current Ladbrokes / Coral merger to know that the former company had agreed to buy out its rival as long ago as 1997. At that stage however, the UK Monopolies and Mergers Commission vetoed the deal and as a result, Coral was sold on to Morgan Grenfell Private Equity.
The rise of the internet was also starting to take hold at this time and Coral were one of the first to become involved. Becoming aware of the digital revolution at an early stage was vital for all online bookies and this side of the business has continued to grow.
Presently, Coral are one of the best in terms of value for money with great odds and a range of promotions for their loyal customers who are now based all over the world.
The Present Day
In today’s busy market, Coral has over 1800 betting shops in the UK and, in the guise of Eurobet, they have many more in Italy. Providing this type of service and allowing players to walk in off the street is still very important to the big bookmakers and it’s good to see Coral thriving in this side of the market.
Sponsorship is also important although Coral are a little more subtle than other brands – choosing to avoid the shirt deals that decorate top footballers across the world and settling instead to put their money behind some big sporting events. Horse racing in particular benefits from being backed by this major organisation.
The last set of figures, released for 2013, showed revenue of £1.2 billion and the company employs over 19,000 people worldwide. Due to the merger with Ladbrokes, it’s something of an uncertain future but surely the Coral brand will remain. It’s one of the oldest and most familiar names in the world of bookmaking and its customers will stay loyal in return for the great service and value for money that they receive.
Coral is one of the United Kingdom’s best known bookmakers, a member of the unofficial Big Three along with Ladbrokes and William Hill that has a major presence on the country’s streets thanks to thousands of licensed betting offices.
Joseph Kagarlitski, a Polish immigrant to the United Kingdom who became better known as Joe Coral, began his bookmaking business in 1926 and, although primarily concerned with operating pitches at racecourses, he opened his first credit office in London’s West End in 1943.
Coral’s founder died in 1996 but not before the bookmaker that bears his nickname had become the United Kingdom’s third largest retail bookmaking business with a market share of approximately 20 per cent. Just three years later, the company entered the world of online bookmaking by purchasing United Kingdom-based, Italy-facing Eurobet. To this day, they are a serious player in both British and Italian markets.
Coral Bookmakers Online
The licensed offices of Coral in the United Kingdom are pretty swish by bookmaker standards and, therefore, it is no surprise that its apps for Android and iOS devices are easy on the eye as well. Mobile betting is well covered, with its apps featuring in-play wagering and live streaming of British horse racing and greyhound racing events.
In the rest of this review we will look at Coral’s betting options, its bonuses, its security and licensing, how it treats professional and recreational punters and its banking practices, before providing an executive summary.
Wagering Options
Coral is a British bookmaker at heart and it shows in its range of gambling choices, with football, horse racing and greyhound racing receiving top billing and being easiest to find.
Most football matches attract more than 100 different markets so only the fussiest punter – one who wants to bet on the blade of grass from which the last goal of the game is scored – will find the need to bet elsewhere most of the time. They don’t cover every football competition in the world but it does bet on the ones that matter to most punters so its service is of the required standard.
Coral owns a couple of greyhound racing stadia in the United Kingdom – Brighton and Hove Greyhound Stadium and Romford Greyhound Stadium – so it knows what punters who want to bet on dog races want, while it is committed to providing a premium horse racing betting service to complement its sponsorship of several big races, including the Eclipse Stakes at Sandown Park. Recent Eclipse Stakes winners include Nathaniel, Sea The Stars and So You Think.
One can bet in-play with Coral using the live betting part of its website. Graphically, the live system does not hold a candle to the offerings of many of its direct competitors and its range of betting options is relatively small. But for the average British or Italian sports punter, Coral’s in-play product is okay.
Bonuses On Display
Coral offers a £50 free bet to new members of the UK website, with the online bookmaker matching the stake of one’s first sports bet up to the maximum amount in the form of a token. Unfortunately, the offer is only available to residents of the United Kingdom and Ireland but, on the bright side, it is not subject to the kind of turnover requirements that diminish the value of many bonuses.
When one accesses Coral’s membership form it becomes very apparent that the online bookmaker does not do business with most of the world. The territories from which it accepts clients are Aland Islands, Albania, Argentina, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, the Isle of Man, Jersey, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Russia, St Kitts and Nevis, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
Also, Coral allows new clients to open accounts in only one of four currencies – American dollars, British pounds, Swedish krona or euros. If one lives outside Europe, this is probably not an online bookmaker to consider seriously.
Security and Licensing
Coral’s online betting operation is licensed in Gibraltar and regulated by the Gibraltar Gambling Commissioner. One can bet safely here. Gibraltar has been synonymous with offshore finance and gambling for many years, while the bookmaker’s reputation in the United Kingdom is beyond reproach.
Professional Versus Recreational Punters
Like its Big Three cousins, Coral tries to be all things to all punters. Because of its conspicuous presence in British towns and cities, most of it’s offline clients are small fish whose stakes are low but whose frequency is high. The average betting shop punter does not come close to breaking the maximum liability limit on most markets.
In reality, Coral is better suited to recreational punters than professional punters but that is not to say that the bookmaker will not cop a big bet, particularly on football and horse racing which are its key product offerings.
Banking Practices
They offer a wide range of ways in which to deposit money into one’s account, including credit cards, debit cards and e-wallet services such as Neteller, PayPal and Skrill. None of them attract any charges, all of them are instantaneous and the minimum deposit level is set at just £5. As touched upon above, Coral allows new clients to open accounts in only one of four currencies – American dollars, British pounds, Swedish krona or euros – which is disappointing.
Joe Coral Bookmakers
Withdrawing money from Coral is just as straightforward as depositing money. Most of the withdrawal methods take three to five working days, although bank transfers and PayPal are instantaneous. The minimum withdrawal is only €/£1.
Executive Summary
Coral did not become one of the United Kingdom’s Big Three bookmakers by accident. It is a rock-solid, professional company that has contributed considerably to the world of offline gambling over the past couple of decades. It is not the online betting market leader and it is heavily focused on a handful of European countries but, if one lives in Ireland, Italy or the United Kingdom, it is a good pick.