The 10 most influential online gambling people this decade: #3

3. Breon Corcoran

Paddy Power Betfair

Reason: Paddy Power Betfair

For a few years this decade all anybody talked about was Breon Corcoran. He was the executive the analysts, investors and even his peers looked up to. Perhaps due to keeping a very low public profile and building up a bit of mystique, he tended to be talked of in unusually revered tones. Although that is with the obvious exception of a fair few people he upset along the way, but that’s another part of the story.

Corcoran’s influence is really two-fold. Firstly, for his time at Betfair where he was appointed CEO in 2011 after a long stint at Paddy Power where he was narrowly passed over for the CEO role. Corcoran took over at Betfair in August 2012 and immediately set about transforming it from a company that had looked to re-style itself as a technology firm back into a betting operator. Betfair blazed away with some very Paddy Power style branding, a fixed odds sportsbook (launched a couple of months before he officially joined) and a surge in revenues.

Corcoran quickly became the darling of the City, helped by his no-nonsense approach and slightly ruthless reputation in terms of hiring and firing and expectations from those who worked for him. It also helped that he was in charge of a business that bounced back in spectacular fashion. Betfair established itself as a home of product innovation too, with cash out launching in 2012 and rapidly becoming the biggest thing to hit the sports betting sector since in-play. But for all that it was what came next that was really why he’s placed so high on this list.

In September 2015 Betfair announced it was merging with Paddy Power to create the giant known today as Flutter, but back then as Paddy Power Betfair. The name was perhaps a bit of a misnomer as really this was Betfair Paddy Power and it was clear the new firm would be shaped broadly in one man’s image. Corcoran took over as CEO and set about making big changes at Power Tower, not always to the delight of all that worked there, but there was no doubt he transformed both the business and the reputation of the wider industry as he did so.

Breon did what Ralph Topping never quite managed, and that was turn the industry into a major player in the financial markets and an industry that was finally, properly, taken seriously. He also briefly defined what was considered best practice in online gambling, with a strong regulated-only focus and placing technology at the heart of everything. He as much as anyone helped build up the importance of regulated markets to the long-term sustainability of the industry and perhaps pushed others too far, too fast, towards them, allowing gaps for other operators to fill.

But to this day there are few executives who have left such a lasting impression and are still talked of so highly by so many. Or at least by a large majority of those he didn’t make redundant. He redefined scale in the sector, changed its image in the financial community and while the business he left behind had more than its own share of issues, it continues to be one of the true power players as we head into the next decade. Not a bad legacy.