Fitzdares named as only gambling firm in The Sunday Times Best Places to Work 2024 list

Fitzdares has been named as the only gambling company in this year’s Sunday Times Best Places to Work list.

The bespoke bookmaker, which has offices in London, Gibraltar and Ontario, was named in the ‘small’ companies category by the newspaper today, 10 May.

The Sunday Times reference Fitzdares’ efforts to go the “extra mile” in making employees feel comfortable.

The firm, which boasts members clubs in central London and the Cotswolds, was singled out for more than 50% of its team of 40 having been with the business at least five years.

Fitzdares launched in 2006 and, with a reputation as a horseracing-centric operator, it has aimed to tap into the larger-stakes gamblers as its core demographic.

The business is led by CEO William Woodhams and recently added former Ladbrokes head Nick Dutton as COO.

Speaking to EGR, Woodhams said culture and retention were fundamental to the company’s core values as he reflected on being named on the list.

He remarked: “If we hire world-class people and retain them, then we deliver world-class customer service. This is critical for our Gibraltar and Ontario teams as well. For Fitzdares, culture begins with the roar of the crowd and the pop of the cork, so we work hard to get our teams out to events and sporting moments.

“We believe in body and mind but no yoga matts in the boardroom. Instead, more unlimited access to gyms, feeding the team at key sporting moments and, of course, the Fitzdares barber or blow-dry bar once a month.

“We’ve had year-on-year pay rises since Covid due to the cost-of-living constraints and we run a novel three-and-a-half days a week in the office programme. We’re a happy bunch and that’s critical to making our members happy,” he added.

Elsewhere, while not a gambling company, media agency The7Stars made the list in the ‘big’ companies category.

The group is the media partner for several Entain brands, including Ladbrokes Coral, Foxy Bingo and Gala Bingo.

The London-based firm also worked with the People’s Postcode Lottery for an eight-figure ad campaign launched in Q4 2023.

The Sunday Times Best Places to Work list is delivered in partnership with employee experience platform WorkL.

Companies featured on the list apply to receive recognition from the paper, with employees then taking a WorkL survey that has been developed with insight from behavioural scientists, psychologists and academics.

The survey features 26 questions that mark against six pillars to quantify employee experiences: reward and recognition, instilling pride, information sharing, empowerment, wellbeing and job satisfaction.

To be successfully accredited on The Sunday Times’ list, companies must achieve a minimum of 70% overall engagement from its employees.

For companies categorised as small, such as Fitzdares, the paper required at least 60% of staff to take part in the survey.

This threshold decreased to 50% for medium and big companies, and just 40% for very large firms.