There are a lot of bookmakers working in the sports betting industry today, but few of them ever reach the level of prestige that some bookmakers of the past have reached. Here, we will discuss the top four bookmakers the world has ever seen and what made them so very great.
1) First up we have Frank Lawrence Rosenthal, probably the most famous bookmaker, who’s life story was the subject of the Hollywood film “Casino”. Better known in the industry as “Lefty” Rosenthal, he grew up in Chicago Illinois, and learned the tricks of the trade from other bookmakers at Wrigley Field. Even at a young age, he was so focused on becoming a bookmaker, that he was known to skip classes to go out and watch the cubbies play. He began his professional career in the industry in the 50s, and at one point ran the largest illegal bookmarking agency in the nation before settling in Las Vegas.
2) Another one of our very famous bookmakers is Freddie “Fearless” Williams. Williams was born in 1942 to a Scottish family in Cumnock, a small village. He would have become a miner, like everyone else in his village, but suffered from severe health problems that kept him from doing so. Lucky for him, he used this as an opportunity to take part in a management buyout and sale of a soft drink company, which propelled him to millionaire status. From there, he began working in bookmaking, starting his official career at a local Greyhound track, and things just grew from there.
3) William Hill is a name that is synonymous with bookmaking. He started out as a professional gambler and amassed a small fortune which he then used to launch his career as a bookie. As a pioneer in the modern era of gambling, Hill experienced many ups and downs as his ideas challenged conventional thinking about sports betting. Today, his legacy lives on through casinos, online sports betting sites and so much more.
4) Last but not least, we have Victor Chandler. Chandler was born in 1951 and is most well known for founding Victor Chandler international. He was the first bookmaker to figure out how to make sports betting legal by making use of the internet and of offshore bookmaking, which is simply using modern communication technology to accept wagers in areas where such activity is considered legal.
