Premierbet and the shame of British Bookmaking

This is a story of two bookmakers, Premierbet and Heathorns, that were bought by a parent company, Interactive Gaming Holdings (IGH) and subsequently run into the ground, leaving punters of one high and dry. Premierbet was established by Tony 'The Lizard' Bloom in early 2002. His aim was to promote Asian Handicap betting to an English audience, and the site was pretty much unique amongst online bookmakers in specialising in one sport - football. Things didn't go as well as he had hoped, however, and he eventually decided to sell up to IGH for £1.2m. Heathorns had a much longer history, claiming to be the world's oldest established bookmaker. The business, after being established by Alfred Heathorn in 1890, was passed down generations of the Simmonds family, until the sad death of Matthew Simmonds in a car accident in 2001. It had an impeccable reputation, being primarily an on-course and credit operation following the sale of its shops to Corals. IGH bought the business in March 2005 for £775,000.

The firms continued their respective credit and internet arms, while gradually merging into one consolidated company under IGH. Indeed, before IGH went under the firms were essentially one and the same as far as internet customers were concerned - same website under two different skins, same helpdesk, same sign up offers and the same centre of operations in Malta was in the process of being finalised. There was just one small but ultimately very significant difference between the two - if you registered at Heathorns you would eventually get paid, if you registered at Premierbet you wouldn't.