Stanley Leisure founder Lord Steinberg dies

LORD STEINBERG who built up the billion-pound Stanley Leisure betting and gaming empire from one betting shop and encountered personal intimidation by the IRA, died on Monday evening, aged 73.

When Leonard Steinberg, who inherited premises from his optician father Jack and opened his first betting shop in 1958, was shot in the thigh by terrorists on the doorstep of his Antrim home in 1977, reputedly for failing to pay protection money, he left the L Stanley business in his native Belfast, which had grown to 16 shops, bound for Liverpool.

Lord Steinberg: built up a billion-pound empire

 

His arrival coincided with Ladbrokes buying a company called Leisure & General, which included 100 surplus Mercury betting shops around Liverpool. Steinberg took them over for £350,000, shut 30 immediately, and began a new branch of the Stanley business with the rest.

Not long afterwards, another Ladbrokes connection resulted in expansion of the business into gaming.

After Ladbrokes lost their licence, Steinberg bought the Adelphi casino in Liverpool and the Midland in Manchester in the equivalent of a fire sale, and Stanley Leisure's gaming operation was born.

John Whittaker, who worked for and with Steinberg for 31 years, most recently as managing director of Stanleybet, summed up his boss: "In 1986, when we had 12 betting shops and three casinos, he owned 90 per cent of the company and floated it with a valuation of less than £9 million.

"Twenty years later, when the shops were sold to William Hill, the business was worth £1.1 billion. You don't need to know anything else about Leonard Steinberg?

"In the late 1980s and early 90s he was the sharpest guy on the block. His strategy was to make acquisitions and make them better, and he'd back his own judgement. That's why he took a punt on the Mercury shops when he came to Liverpool.

"And that's how he came to buy the Gus Carter betting shops. Thenational lottery had just come in and we were being hammered by the scratchcards, but Leonard knew that machines were coming in, and he went with his instincts. He was proved right."

Whittaker added: "He wasn't always an easy man, and we had our moments, which you'd expect if you worked for someone for 31 years, but we generally got on.

"He had a reputation for being a tough negotiator, which he was, but he was always fair, and when he shook hands ona deal, that was it; there was no going back, or renegotiating.

"He will have annoyed a few people, but if I had to sum him up in a word, it would be ‘honourable'."

Steinberg remained active even after selling Stanleybet to William Hill for £504m in 2005, and the casino business a year later to Genting for £639m. The two deals earned Steinberg £42m, and this year's Sunday Times Rich List estimated his fortune at £90m.

At his death, which occurred suddenly in London's Ritz hotel, soon after he arrived from his home in Greater Manchester to attend the House of Lords, Steinberg was a partner in Whittaker's company Stanleybet International in a betting operation in Poland.

Steinberg, whose funeral was held at Dunham Lawn cemetery in Altrincham on Tuesday, was made a Conservative life peer in 2004, with the title Baron Steinberg of Belfast. He had served as Tory deputy treasurer for many years.

Conservative leader David Cameron said: "Leonard was a popular and active member of the House of Lords, and a good friend to the Conservative party. He regularly offered me his sage advice and words of wisdom, which were always gratefully received."

Steinberg is survived by wife Beryl, whom he married in 1962, two children and six grandchildren.