Giant of Stanleybet John Whittaker dies aged 69

John Whittaker, non-executive chairman of Stanleybet, died last Saturday following a long battle with cancer. He was 69.

Whittaker served as chief executive officer of the Stanleybet group for several years, overseeing the firm's success having joined in 1978.

Paying tribute, Giovanni Garrisi, current CEO for Stanleybet, said: "Personally I knew John as a colleague and close friend for over 24 years and I very much considered him as my mentor in the business world – being a constant source of knowledge, wisdom and reflection by my side as we built in Europe the Stanleybet business together from nothing.

"We shall miss John greatly and hope that his family, friends and colleagues will all find solace in the coming days with the various lasting legacies, work related and otherwise, that he built during his life."

In his time there, Whittaker guided Stanleybet International's rise to become Europe's leading cross-border retail sports betting group.

Having started out with a small bookmaker in Bury, by 1970 he was working for Britain's then-biggest betting firm Ladbrokes before making the long-lasting switch to the emerging Stanley organisation eight years later.

"For the first six months I thought it was the worst decision of my life," Whittaker recalled, "then, after we bought the old Mercury Racing business in Merseyside and Yorkshire from Ladbrokes, I realised it was the best."

When Stanley went public in 1986, Whittaker was a regional director and the company was valued at £9 million. When the business was sold 20 years later the valuation had soared to £1.1 billion.

Whittaker became managing director of the betting operation in 1995, and having started his senior job with 250 shops that made £7m a year, he closed out with the sale to William Hill for £504m in June 2005 when 624 shops were making £35m a year.

"It was the right time to sell," he said. "The Stanley board were more and more inclined to get into casinos and wouldn't release money for betting shops. We had a deal to buy Seymour and Seymour's shops, for instance, but let it go to the Tote.

"William Hill bought at the top of the market, but it was a deal that had a happy seller and a happy buyer. We got a fabulous price and Hills leapfrogged Ladbrokes to the top of the betting-shop league table."

Whittaker was due to retire in 2011, but having resigned from host of Stanleybet companies at the end of that year, he was back with similar appointments in 2013, and having handed over to Garrisi as CEO, he was chairman to the end, signing off the latest accounts for Stanleybet Holdings.

A popular figure and family man, he leaves behind his wife Joyce, son David, daughter Michelle and three grandchildren.