Buyout hopes for Yates’s failed betting business

WORKERS at the €6 million in debt, failed Celtic Bookmakers organisation were given a reprieve this week when they learned there has been interest shown in the company’s betting offices.

To date, receivers Hughes Blake Accountants have received over 40 expressions of interest to buy out part or all of Celtic Bookmakers’ 47-shop business empire.

Co-owner Ivan Yates put his home (which has been in the family for four generations) and his 78-year-old mother’s home in Wexford as collateral for loans to expand his and wife Deirdre’s betting empire only for it to come crashing down around them.