Interview with Wayne Lochner of Global Betbrokers
You won't be accosted by glitzy television ads or towering
96-sheet billboards. Nor will your browser be bombarded
with banners and buttons. But – whisper it softly – Global
Betbrokers is coming.
Readers of Through
The Maze may recall the interview with
Wayne Lochner – Chairman of Global Betbrokers
(GBB) - carried in the journal (Volume 5, Edition
1) earlier this year. The one-time CEO of Affinity
Plc and London E-Business Entrepreneur of the
Year is saddling up another thoroughbred with
a convincing pedigree and a winning outlook.
Lochner, 48, laid himself open to interrogation
by Through The Maze reporter Amy Chiaverini.
AC: Wayne , you spoke to Through
The Maze about your plans for the start-up Global
Betbrokers back in February of this year.
What's happened since then?
WL: “Although
GBB has made giant strides in recruiting its
brokerage team and taking the IT build forward,
we still have work to do on both these fronts.
With this in mind, GBB has just launched a service,
albeit restricted for a limited number of invited
clients. Meanwhile we have a growing roster of
enthusiastic applicants awaiting activation.”
AC: What
are your short term goals for GBB?
WL: “My
early ambitions for GBB are the same
as for any start-up that is going to succeed: Co-ordinated,
measured progress on all fronts. In terms
of operations, we now have our back office
in decent shape while Hewlett Packard
are due to complete our IT build by the end of
the year. Although the emphasis will
be on voice brokerage, it is vital to have a best-of-breed
technical infrastructure supporting the
whole enterprise. Of course the other key consideration
is our brokerage team. We are recruiting
both from the cream of the sports betting
sector as well as amongst experienced,
sports-literate City brokers. In both cases quality
and rigorous integrity are the watch-words.
AC: What
do you mean by voice brokerage in a betting context? WL: “Voice
brokerage is at the heart of the GBB proposition.
The internet has been the fastest-growing executional
tool for bettors over the past 5 years. However,
very few – if any – UK bookmakers accept bets
of any significant size over the web. For those
higher value bets, the bookmaker prefers to deal
by phone, and most higher-staking customers are
phone-led too. This emphasis on telephony allows
us to deliver a highly-specialised and personalised
service. Indeed, as far as service is concerned,
we really want to come in and raise the bar.”
AC: This
seems to be a bold and original concept. How
easy has it been enlisting support and investment?
WL: “I
assure you: at times it hasn't felt easy at all.
But we've done well with our fundraising, securing £ 1.25
million by the start of 2005 and a further £600,000
when we rounded off stage 2 in
August. Having activated the service
now, we feel we're in the home
straight, and the stage 3 funding
we require is needed in order to
add scale to the business and increase
and exploit momentum. Most of the
major tasks are complete, and thanks
to the niche nature of the business,
we believe we don't require the
heavyweight spend of an above-the-line
launch campaign to attract customers.
Our emphasis will be on exploiting
the viral nature of betting behaviour
and the recommendation of GBB to
their peers by a growing band of
satisfied customers.”
You can
find more information about Global BetBrokers
at www.betbrokers.com |
Ariadne
Capital Journal - Through the Maze Volume
5, Edition 3 
