🎲 Betfair Limited

This company is a remote gambling operator offering sports betting, betting exchange, casino, poker and related online gambling products to customers in Great Britain. It holds an active operating licence from the Gambling Commission and trades as part of a wider group of consumer-facing gambling brands. It is currently authorised to provide remote gambling services to British customers under this licence.

The business traces its origins to June 2000, when Andrew Black and Edward Wray launched an online betting exchange platform that allowed customers to bet with and against each other. The exchange model was developed as an alternative to traditional fixed-odds bookmaking, using a market structure similar to a financial exchange. Over time, the business expanded into additional gambling verticals, including fixed-odds sportsbook, online casino, poker and bingo-style products.

The current corporate entity registered as Betfair Limited at Companies House (company number 05140986) was incorporated in 2004 in England and Wales. Historically, the wider Betfair group operated through a number of UK subsidiaries, including Betfair General Betting Limited and The Sporting Exchange (Clients) Limited, which were listed as subsidiaries in Betfair Group plc annual reports. In 2006, a 23% stake in the group was acquired by SoftBank Corporation at a valuation of about £1.5 billion. The group later floated on the London Stock Exchange in October 2010.

In February 2016, Betfair Group plc completed an all‑share merger with Paddy Power plc to create Paddy Power Betfair plc. This entity was subsequently renamed Flutter Entertainment plc. Since that merger, Betfair Limited has operated as a wholly owned subsidiary within the Flutter group. Flutter’s annual reports list Betfair Limited as a 100% owned company incorporated in England, forming part of a portfolio that also includes brands such as Paddy Power and other international operators.

Licensing and Operations

The company holds a Gambling Commission operating licence covering remote gambling activities. This operating licence authorises it to offer remote betting services, including sports betting and betting exchange products, to customers in Great Britain. In addition, the licence permits the provision of remote casino-style games and related online gaming products, such as slots and table games, and remote poker.

Through these permissions, the company is able to provide a range of online gambling facilities, including:

• Remote general betting (real events), encompassing sportsbook and exchange betting on sports and other real-world events.
• Remote casino activities, including games of chance played for money or money’s worth.
• Remote poker, where players compete against each other in card games for stakes.

The Gambling Commission public register records the operator’s status as active, indicating that its operating licence is currently in force. The company’s trading names and associated remote domains are listed on the Commission’s public register but are not reproduced here. The firm also holds or has held additional gambling licences in other jurisdictions outside Great Britain, including Italy, Bulgaria and certain US states, for locally regulated operations, but those are governed by separate regulators.

Regulatory History

The Gambling Commission public register shows the operator’s licence as active and does not, as of the latest available information, record a revocation or suspension of its operating licence. Publicly available sources and regulatory disclosures up to 2024 do not identify any major enforcement action by the Gambling Commission specifically naming Betfair Limited that resulted in licence suspension or revocation.

The wider Flutter group has been subject to regulatory scrutiny in various markets, but any such actions have typically been addressed at group or brand level rather than resulting in the loss of this specific UK operating licence. Where regulatory settlements or fines have occurred, these have generally involved improvements to safer gambling controls, anti-money laundering procedures and compliance systems across the group’s UK‑licensed entities.