BoyleSports to heavily invest in further UK expansion drive

Irish betting firm BoyleSports is looking to majorly invest in further growing its business in the UK market and is hoping to use this summer's delayed Euro 2020 tournament as a springboard.

BoyleSports is targeting further UK expansion as part of a multi-million euro investment drive.

The Irish betting firm is currently negotiating what it calls “some very exciting deals”. 

The company is open to acquiring more UK bookmakers and entering more sports sponsorship deals. 

Currently, Boyle acts as shirt sponsor for Birmingham City and Coventry City football clubs and is an online betting partner of English Premiership club Wolverhampton Wanderers.

It has more than 60 shops in the UK, although it counts its retail estate in the North among those. 

Boyle's retail presence in England is concentrated around the British midlands and has developed through acquisition in recent years. 

BoyleSports has previously indicated a desire to have a regional UK retail network of about 100 shops.

The company also still has ambitions to grow its online business internationally outside of Ireland and the UK. 

This could see it form partnership agreements in other markets, but any online rollout is still likely to be under the BoyleSports brand.

While the betting industry’s heavy hitters – like Paddy Power owner Flutter Entertainment and Ladbrokes owner Entain – have turned their expansion focus to the rapidly growing US market, both are still open to further online growth in Europe. 

Entain recently identified further expansion in Germany and the Netherlands as being on its radar for growth.

European Championship

Part of Boyle’s current investment is going on a massive marketing push around the European Championship football tournament, the dominant international sporting event of the early summer and the first big betting event since the easing of Covid restrictions.

Boyle’s is targeting a 100% increase in customers on the back of the tournament, alone.

The company’s medium-to-long-term aim is to be a market leader for soccer betting across Ireland and the UK. It said it saw a 250% increase in its football punter client base over the past 18 months.

Ahead of the Euros beginning last week, Ladbrokes owner Entain said it expects more than three million people, across Europe, to place bets with it on the tournament. That would be roughly twice as many as bet with it on the last World Cup.