Fast Five Friday: The £15M bet that built a £3.7B empire

Hi

Welcome to Bankrolling Tomorrow - your no‑BS guide to raise capital.

I read something really interesting recently in The Almanack Of Naval Ravikant. It was about a framework that completely changed how I think about business growth.

It's about leverage - the four kinds founders can use: Labour, Capital,Technology, Media.

Ever since reading this, I've been seeing it everywhere. You realise you're not just "making decisions" - you're choosing which lever to pull next, and which ones you've been ignoring without even noticing.

It's a brilliant framework, and I'd strongly recommend the book.

Which brings me to this week's capital raise breakdown - because it's a masterclass in using capital leverage strategically - Bet365.

Denise Coates was running her family's high-street betting shops when she recognised the wave of the internet opening a new path for distribution. She knew that in the internet era, margins would be bigger and volumes would increase. And that's exactly what happened.

And the beauty of it? Denise wasn't guessing. She'd been deep in the numbers her whole life. Running tills in her dad's betting shops, learning how odds actually work, then earning a first-class econometrics degree. When she said the business could be a cash engine, she'd already run the math.

So when she borrowed £15M against those betting shops, it wasn't a leap of faith.

It was extracting capital from a stable, proven business and redirecting it into a digital opportunity that nobody else was claiming.

And here are 5 things you can take away from Denise Coates' genius capital raise for bet365:

1/ Debt isn't the villain - your business model is
Stop treating debt like it's going to destroy your life. The real danger isn't the loan - it's weak margins, unpredictable cash flow, or not knowing how you'll cover repayments. Debt is just structured money with a timeline. When your business fundamentals are solid, borrowing doesn't make you riskier - it makes you sharper and more disciplined.

2/ Turn your assets into borrowing power
You don't need £15M worth of betting shops. Whatever you have - equipment, inventory, contracts, even recurring revenue - can work as collateral. It lowers the bank's risk and gets you better terms. Denise used what she had. You should too. The principle scales, regardless of size.

3/ Only borrow to build what compounds
Here's where most people get it wrong - they borrow to patch holes or buy time. Denise put every pound into building the online platform, the very thing the industry was moving toward. Borrow for things that increase margins, make cash flow more predictable, and future-proof your business. Not for experiments you can't predict.

4/ Take it step by step, not all at once
Denise's approach was sequential: leverage the shops → build the platform → sell the shops → clear the debt → scale again. Borrow, deploy, prove. Then repeat if it works. Don't bet everything on one massive commitment. Keep it incremental and tied to actual performance.

5/ Strategic debt preserves ownership while accelerating growth
While her VC-backed competitors gave away equity, Denise kept 100% control and built a £3.7B business. Debt doesn't box you in when used right - it opens doors you'd never access through equity alone. You get the capital without giving up decision-making power.

Debt doesn’t kill businesses. Bad decisions do.

Thanks for allowing me into your inbox every week.

If you have any questions, or want to discuss any of my rants on these topics in depth, reply to this email, and I will get back to you ASAP.

Talk soon,

James