bet365: licences, history and record

bet365 is a British sportsbook that Wikipedia says Denise Coates founded in 2000. The Gambling Commission lists three bet365 licensees and announced settlements with two of them in April 2024. Gibraltar and iGaming Ontario each list a licensee as well, and Australian regulators have acted against its Australian arm twice.

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Pros and cons

At a glance

Founded

2000 (Wikipedia, secondary)Source: Wikipedia

Betting licensee in Great Britain

Hillside (UK Sports) ENC, account 55148, Malta addressSource: Gambling Commission

Casino licensee in Great Britain

Hillside (UK Gaming) ENC, account 55149, Malta addressSource: Gambling Commission

Software licensee in Great Britain

Hillside (Technology) Limited, account 38721, Stoke-on-Trent addressSource: Gambling Commission

Parent company

Bet365 Group Limited, number 04241161, incorporated 26 June 2001Source: Companies House

Other licences read

Gibraltar (Hillside (Gibraltar) Limited) and Ontario (Hillside (International Sports) ENC)Sources: Gibraltar Gambling Division; iGaming Ontario

Not on the list

South Africa's National Gambling Board verified-operator list has no bet365 entrySource: National Gambling Board

Regulator actions found

Commission: £239,085 and £343,035 (2024); Australia: A$2.75m (2016) and an AUSTRAC enforceable undertaking; New Jersey: $33,000Sources: Gambling Commission; Gambling Commission; Australian Competition and Consumer Commission; iGaming Business; New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement

Last read

3 October 2026Source: Gambling Commission

Company history

According to Wikipedia, Denise Coates founded bet365 in 2000 in a portable building in Stoke-on-Trent and launched the online business in March 2001. It borrowed £15 million from Royal Bank of Scotland against the family's betting shops, which Peter Coates had started in 1974 and Denise Coates had run as managing director from 1995. It sold the shop chain to Coral for £40 million in 2005 and repaid the loan.Source: Wikipedia

Companies House lists Bet365 Group Limited, number 04241161, as incorporated on 26 June 2001 under the name K & S (429) Limited, with a Stoke-on-Trent registered office and head-office activity as its business. Its last accounts run to 30 March 2025. Hillside (Shared Services) Limited, incorporated on 28 March 2000, was formerly Hillside (New Media) Limited, the name Wikipedia gives as the bet365 trading company.Sources: Companies House; Companies House; Wikipedia

Wikipedia says Denise Coates holds 50.1% of the shares, with her brother John as co-chief executive and their father Peter as chairman. It puts revenue at £2.8 billion for 2020 and £4 billion for 2024, with pre-tax profit of £349 million in 2024.Source: Wikipedia

The licensed entity in Great Britain has changed. The Commission says Hillside (New Media) Limited surrendered its licences in 2015, and Hillside (Gibraltar) Limited and Hillside (UK Sports) LP surrendered theirs in 2020. The two current Commission licensees, Hillside (UK Sports) ENC and Hillside (UK Gaming) ENC, have held licences since 17 October 2019.Sources: Gambling Commission; Gambling Commission; Gambling Commission

Wikipedia describes the overseas growth: a New Jersey launch with Hard Rock after the 2018 US Supreme Court ruling, Colorado from 6 September 2022, and Ontario from April 2022. It adds a Brazilian listing in February 2025 and a French launch on 26 May 2026 after an ANJ licence. We did not check those registers.Source: Wikipedia

1. 2000Founded

   Denise Coates founds bet365 in Stoke-on-Trent (Wikipedia).

   Source: Wikipedia
2. March 2001Online launch

   The online business launches (Wikipedia).

   Source: Wikipedia
3. 2005Shops sold

   bet365 sells its betting-shop chain to Coral for £40 million (Wikipedia).

   Source: Wikipedia
4. 17 October 2019Current UK licensees

   Hillside (UK Sports) ENC and Hillside (UK Gaming) ENC begin holding Commission licences.

   Sources: Gambling Commission; Gambling Commission
5. 4 April 2024Commission settlements

   Both UK licensees settle with the Gambling Commission.

   Sources: Gambling Commission; Gambling Commission

Licences it holds

Where you can and cannot use it

Great Britain: yes, under the three Commission licences above. Ontario: yes, the iGaming Ontario directory lists bet365 for casino and sports betting, and the Ontario standards bar anyone under 19 from playing.Sources: Gambling Commission; iGaming Ontario; AGCO

South Africa: the National Gambling Board's verified-operator list, marked updated 4 September 2026 and built from provincial licensing authorities, has no bet365 entry. The list covers South African licences and does not say what foreign operators do.Source: National Gambling Board

Elsewhere, we have only Wikipedia, which names the United States (New Jersey and Colorado), Brazil and France, and says bet365 announced in March 2025 that it would stop serving China and other jurisdictions. bet365's own pages returned an access-denied response, so we did not use them or try to get round the block.Source: Wikipedia

Payments and withdrawals

We could not read bet365's payment pages, so we cannot list its methods, limits or withdrawal times. What a Commission licensee must do is public, and it applies to bet365's three GB licences. Licence condition 6.1.2 bans gambling by credit card, including through e-wallets that accept credit-card top-ups.Source: Gambling Commission

Under condition 17.1.1 a licensee must verify a customer's name, address and date of birth before the customer may gamble. A withdrawal request must not trigger a request for further information that the licensee could reasonably have asked for earlier, unless another legal duty requires it.Source: Gambling Commission

Customer funds must sit in separate client bank accounts, and the licensee must tell each customer in writing whether the funds are protected on insolvency and at what level. We did not read the level bet365 declares.Sources: Gambling Commission; Gambling Commission

In Ontario, the standards say player funds must be clearly and appropriately managed and that players must be told about funds left in dormant accounts. They also require a way to complain about funds management and say disputes must be resolved under Ontario and Canadian law.Source: AGCO

Limits and safer-gambling tools

In Great Britain a licensee must offer a time-out of 24 hours, one week, one month or another period up to six weeks. Self-exclusion must close the account and return the funds, and the operator must remove the person from marketing databases within two days.Sources: Gambling Commission; Gambling Commission

The Commission's deposit-limit rules are changing. From 30 September 2026 new customers must be offered gross deposit limits, and a prompt to review account information and limits at least every six months has applied since 31 October 2025. We did not read how bet365 has applied either change.Source: Gambling Commission

In Ontario, operators must let players set deposit and loss limits at registration, over periods that include 24 hours, seven days and one month, with the lowest limit applying. A request to relax a limit must wait at least 24 hours. Breaks in play of one day to three months must be offered.Source: AGCO

Ontario operators must also join the central self-exclusion program, which offers six-month, one-year and five-year terms. They must stop marketing within 24 hours of a registration and refund outstanding wagers placed before the person was added.Source: AGCO

Drawbacks

The 2024 settlements are the main drawback. The Commission found that bet365's know-your-customer triggers were ineffective, that it did not run sanctions checks on new customers before their first deposits, and that it relied too heavily on customers' annual self-verification. It found no evidence of criminal spend or sanctioned funds.Sources: Gambling Commission; Gambling Commission

On customer interaction, the licensees accepted that messages were frequently not tailored to the customer and that the early risk detection system was not shown to work. The Commission listed repeated breach, similar earlier cases and continuing after awareness as aggravating factors, and each licensee also paid £15,684.50 towards its costs.Sources: Gambling Commission; Gambling Commission

Settlements abroad add to the record. In Australia, a court imposed A$2.75 million over a free-bet offer in 2016, and a trade report says the Australian arm accepted an AUSTRAC enforceable undertaking after findings that it lacked an adequate AML and counter-terrorism financing programme.Sources: Australian Competition and Consumer Commission; iGaming Business

In New Jersey, the Division of Gaming Enforcement imposed a $33,000 civil penalty for wagers on prohibited events and after outcomes were known. A trade report adds an order to pay $519,323.32 on 199 winning wagers whose odds bet365 had changed without approval.Sources: New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement; iGaming Business

The company is private, and its group accounts were not readable to us. Revenue and profit figures here are Wikipedia's, so we cannot say how large or well funded the operating companies are.Sources: Companies House; Wikipedia

How it compares

Both are British brands licensed in Great Britain and Gibraltar. bet365 sold its betting shops in 2005 and trades online, while William Hill's shop licensee lists 1,250 premises. bet365 is private and, per Wikipedia, majority-owned by its founder, while William Hill sits inside the listed evoke plc.Sources: Wikipedia; Gambling Commission; evoke plc

The licensing structures differ. bet365's GB betting and casino licences sit in two Malta-addressed ENC partnerships, with software in a Stoke-on-Trent company. William Hill's online licensee, WHG (International), has a Gibraltar address. Only bet365 appears in the Ontario directory.Sources: Gambling Commission; Gambling Commission; Gambling Commission; iGaming Ontario

The records differ in scale. bet365's two Commission settlements total £582,120, set against £6.2m in 2018 and £19.2m in 2023 for William Hill's group. bet365 also carries Australian and New Jersey actions, which the sources we read do not show for William Hill.Sources: Gambling Commission; Gambling Commission; Gambling Commission; Gambling Commission

Read the William Hill review for the other side of the comparison.

If something goes wrong

We did not read bet365's own complaint procedure. Commission licensees must handle complaints in a timely, fair and open way and must let a customer refer an unresolved dispute to an alternative dispute resolution body, free of charge, if it is not settled within eight weeks.Source: Gambling Commission

Ontario players can use iGaming Ontario's complaints service, and the Gibraltar Division takes complaints about its licensees. The register pages below give each regulator's route.Sources: iGaming Ontario; Gibraltar Gambling Division

Regulatory record

1. 10 June 2016ACCC penalty: A$2.75 million

   The Federal Court of Australia imposed A$2.75 million in penalties on Hillside (Australia New Media) and Hillside (Shared Services) over a '$200 FREE BETS FOR NEW CUSTOMERS' offer run from March 2013 to January 2014. The court found it misleading, because customers had to deposit and risk $200 of their own money first.

   Source: Australian Competition and Consumer Commission
2. 4 April 2024UK Gambling Commission: £239,085

   Hillside (UK Sports) ENC paid £239,085 in lieu of a financial penalty after a review that began with a March 2022 compliance assessment. The Commission found money-laundering controls failed between May 2021 and July 2022, and customer interaction failed between October 2021 and September 2022.

   Sources: Gambling Commission; Gambling Commission
3. 4 April 2024UK Gambling Commission: £343,035

   Hillside (UK Gaming) ENC paid £343,035 in lieu of a financial penalty after the same review. It also breached condition 12.1.2, which makes foreign-based licensees follow the UK money-laundering regulations.

   Sources: Gambling Commission; Gambling Commission
4. August 2024New Jersey: $33,000

   An order filed in the Division of Gaming Enforcement's rulings for 16 to 31 August 2024 adopts a settlement and imposes a $33,000 civil penalty on Hillside (New Jersey) LLC for conduct between February 2022 and January 2023.

   Source: New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement
5. July 2026AUSTRAC enforceable undertaking (trade press)

   iGaming Business reports that AUSTRAC accepted an enforceable undertaking from Hillside (Australia New Media) in early July 2026, covering 1 July 2016 to 2 November 2022, with a final auditor report due 30 July 2027.

   Source: iGaming Business

What we could not check

• bet365's own site, odds, payment methods, limits, bonus terms and complaint procedure (every page we tried returned an access-denied response).
• Which regulators beyond Great Britain, Gibraltar and Ontario list a bet365 licensee; Wikipedia's claims about other countries are unchecked.
• Group revenue, profit and ownership, which are Wikipedia's figures and are not checked against the filed accounts.
• The AUSTRAC matter beyond trade press and Wikipedia, which both date the agreement to July 2026.
• What the Commission's 2024 findings have changed in practice.