BetBright was a digital entertainment and online sports betting company based in Dublin and operating in the UK and

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. A ...

. As of 5 March 2019, Betbright ceased gambling operations on a permanent basis after the company was bought by

888 Holdings 888 Holdings PLC, () known commonly as 888, is a public company which owns several popular gambling brands and websites, including 888sport, 888casino and 888poker. 888 is based in Gibraltar. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a con ...

for £15m.

History

BetBright was founded in 2013, by Marcus Brennan, Richard Brennan, Gary Hunter and Tadhg O'Toole. The company develop and operate its own

sports betting Sports betting is the activity of predicting sports results and placing a wager on the outcome. The frequency of sports bet upon varies by culture, with the vast majority of bets being placed on association football, American football, basket ...

and

online casino Online casinos, also known as virtual casinos or Internet casinos, are online versions of traditional ("brick and mortar") casinos. Online casinos enable gamblers to play and wager on casino games through the Internet. It is a prolific form of o ...

platforms, instead of using a white-label system delivered by another provider. On 6 November 2014, BetBright announced the addition of its online casino product to complement the existing

platform. In 2015, BetBright expanded on their

by incorporating a range of virtual games from

Betradar Sportradar AG is a multinational corporation with headquarters in St. Gallen, Switzerland, that collects and analyzes sports data for bookmakers, national and international sports federations, and Mass media, media companies. As of 2022, the comp ...

. On 30 January 2016, prominent racehorse owner and businessman Rich Ricci was unveiled as the new Executive Chairman of the company. In November 2016, BetBright's focus on internal product development resulted in them winning the "Best In-House Product" award at the 2016 EGR operator awards, this was followed up soon after by winning the "Best Football Betting Product" award at the annual SBC industry awards a month later. On 22 August 2017, BetBright announced the hiring of ex Poker Stars Director, Sarne Lightman as the new MD of Sportsbook and Casino. In February 2018, BetBright announced growth plans as it aims to be a "disrupter" in the gambling sector, with ambitions to add almost 130,000 new customers in 2018 and forecast doubling in revenues from €14m in 2017 to €29m in 2018. In June 2018, BetBright was recognised for its creativity and innovation in online gambling following the development of their ‘recommendations engine’ – a first for the gambling sector. - winning the "Innovation in sports betting" award at the 2018 EGR Marketing & Innovation Awards 2018. In March 2019, BetBright was sold to 888 Holdings for £15m, a deal which sparked controversy when the sale announcement included a link to an "FAQ" site that said "all bets due to settle after 5 March at 23:59pm will be voided." This affects all season long bets on the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

Awards

Sponsorships

BetBright Cup

In January 2015, BetBright embarked on a three-year sponsorship deal with

Cheltenham racecourse Cheltenham Racecourse at Prestbury Park, near Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England, hosts National Hunt horse racing. Its most prestigious meeting is the Cheltenham Festival, held in March, which features several Grade I races including the Chel ...

to include four of the seven races on the New Years Day card; as well as the feature race on Trials Day; and the BetBright Cup throughout the

Cheltenham Festival The Cheltenham Festival is a horse racing-based meeting in the National Hunt racing calendar in the United Kingdom, with race prize money second only to the Grand National. The four-day festival takes place annually in March at Cheltenham Rac ...

. The BetBright Cup (formerly the Prestbury Cup) is the competition between Irish trained horses and British trained horses at the

. The trophy is awarded to the country with the most number of Cheltenham Festival horse race winners. In January 2016, it was announced that

Hector Ó hEochagáin Shane Ó hEochagáin (; born 17 August 1969), known mononymously as Hector, is an Irish television and radio presenter born in Drogheda, County Louth, and raised in Navan, Co. Meath. He currently presents ''The Tommy and Hector Podcast with Laur ...

would captain the Irish side, while Robert "Choc" Thornton would captain the British side. The series ended in a draw between both countries. In February 2017, it was announced that

would reprise his role as Irish captain, while

Phil Tufnell Philip Clive Roderick Tufnell (born 29 April 1966) is a former English international cricketer and current television and radio personality. A slow left-arm orthodox spin bowler (cricket), bowler, he played in 42 Test cricket, Test matches and ...

would take over the role of British captain throughout the Festival. BetBright also announced a prize fund of £10,000 to be paid to the Injured Jockeys Fund in the country of the winning team. The series ended with Ireland beating the British team on a scoreline of 19–9. In February 2018, it was announced that Ex England cricket spin bowler

and former snooker star

Ken Doherty Ken Doherty (born 17 September 1969) is an Irish professional snooker player, commentator and radio presenter. As an amateur, Doherty won the Irish Amateur Championship twice, the World Under-21 Amateur Championship and the World Amateur C ...

were the BetBright Cup captains of Great Britain and Ireland, respectively.

BAMMA sponsorship

In July 2017, BetBright was unveiled as the official betting partner of Europe's biggest MMA promotion at

BAMMA BAMMA (British Association of Mixed Martial Arts) was a mixed martial arts promotion based in the United Kingdom. It premiered on June 27, 2009, and was shown on the television channel Bravo. BAMMA events were shown live on ITV4 in the UK and Ire ...

29 in Dublin.

Nottingham Forest

On 13 June 2018, BetBright were announced as the official shirt sponsor for

EFL Championship The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the E ...

club

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

for their 2018–19 season. The deal was said to be the most ''"significant front-of-shirt agreement in the club's history"''. The BetBright company logo will be displayed on the front of all of

's playing kits for the coming 2018/19 season. BetBright have even agreed to slightly alter the colouring of their logo, to all-white branding, in order to maintain the traditional colour scheme of

’s Garibaldi red shirt.

Ambassadors

, Robert "Choc" Thornton,

and

have all held the role of BetBright Cup captains. In addition, BetBright have enlisted the services of veteran TV presenter

Nick Luck Nicholas Edward Francis Luck (born 28 June 1978) is an English racing broadcaster, who previously presented ''Channel 4 Racing'' on Channel 4. He appeared on Racing UK at its launch in 2004 after 18 months as part of the original Racing Chann ...

as a regular horse racing pundit. Former professional footballer

Jimmy Bullard James Richard Bullard (born 23 October 1978) is an English former professional footballer, coach and television personality. He is the co-host of the Saturday morning Sky Sports show ''Soccer AM''. As a player he was a midfielder and played you ...

has been a football ambassador for BetBright since the 2016–17 Premier League season, writing a weekly blog column.

Football World Cup 2018

In June 2018, BetBright hired

Rebekah Vardy Rebekah Vardy (''née'' Miranda, previously Nicholson; born 17 February 1982) is an English media personality married to the English football player Jamie Vardy. She was a contestant on '' I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!'' in 2017 and on ...

- wife of

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

forward

Jamie Vardy Jamie Richard Vardy (''né'' Gill; born 11 January 1987) is an English professional footballer who plays as a striker for club Leicester City. Regarded as one of the best strikers in the world, Vardy is known for his prolific goalscoring aided ...

- as a VAR expert for the tournament, alongside former

referee,

Mark Halsey Mark R. Halsey (born 8 July 1961) is an English retired professional football referee who was born in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, later based in Bolton, Greater Manchester.

References

{{reflist, 30em

External links

A bright bet by Rich Ricci
Irish Times. Retrieved 24 August 2017
BetBright Cup winner gets £10,000 for Injured Jockeys Fund
SBC News. Retrieved 25 August 2017
ABP funding scheme faces big test after Rich Ricci joins BetBright
The Guardian. Retrieved 25 August 2017 Online gambling companies of Ireland Online gambling companies of the United Kingdom Defunct gambling companies Gambling companies disestablished in 2019