JenningsBet

The company were founded in 1961, right at the time when gambling within high street stores became legal within the UK. The company was headed up by Tom Jennings who was the first person to open a high street betting shop within the south east, interestingly enough. Over the years the company has steadily grown, but they’ve always kept true to their roots, with the majority of their still being based in Essex and across the south east. There has often been quite a lot of confusion between Jennings Bet and Jennings Bookmakers. The companies are actually two separate entities, although are run by members of the same family. Jennings Bookmakers actually de-merged in 1995, which then paved the way for Greg and Julian Knight, grandsons of Tom Jennings, to continue trading as Jennings Racing. Jo Jennings, Tom’s son had their own shop, but following the death of Joe in 2002, the companied merged into one, to form Jennings Bets. Whilst the business have always been separate, they have always remained close and kept it very much within the family, often with workers within each store being able to jump across and help out in the other brand when needed. It was also reported that following the death of Tom, there had been many buyouts and potential offers tabled from major high street brands to purchase their stores, which promptly got rejected, citing that they wanted to keep this a family business. The brand is unique in that way and whilst they don’t have the financial power of some of their competitors, they serve a purpose to a community that has relied on them for decades. They still own over 100 stores let’s not forget, which even more impressive when you consider the current climate of high street bookmaking. In fact, in 2013 they were talking about expansion plans, rather than wind up plans, eventually moving out of the south and even opening their first betting shop in Manchester. Since this occurred a number of other sites have been purchased and developed under the Jennings Bet brand, with more sites set to open in the coming years.