YP business profile: Caroline Ackroyd, Sky Betting and Gaming.

In her time she has watched SkyBet grow into one of the fastest growing firms in the area. Mark Casci spoke to finance boss Caroline Ackroyd.
Date: 3rd March 2017. Picture James Hardisty.
Caroline Ackroyd, Director of Commercial Finance for Skybet & Gaming, picture at their offices in Leeds.Date: 3rd March 2017. Picture James Hardisty.
Caroline Ackroyd, Director of Commercial Finance for Skybet & Gaming, picture at their offices in Leeds.
Date: 3rd March 2017. Picture James Hardisty. Caroline Ackroyd, Director of Commercial Finance for Skybet & Gaming, picture at their offices in Leeds.

Now well into her second stint with the Yorkshire tech giant Caroline Ackroyd has had a ringside seat for much of the firm’s progression.

Ms Ackroyd has worked in a variety of accountancy roles and has worked in London, Scotland and Gibraltar. However, the allure of her native Yorkshire proved too strong and she ultimately decided that this was where she wanted to set down roots, currently serving as director of commerical finance.

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“I personally do not see any downsides of living here”, she said.

Date: 3rd March 2017. Picture James Hardisty.
Caroline Ackroyd, Director of Commercial Finance for Skybet & Gaming, picture at their offices in Leeds.Date: 3rd March 2017. Picture James Hardisty.
Caroline Ackroyd, Director of Commercial Finance for Skybet & Gaming, picture at their offices in Leeds.
Date: 3rd March 2017. Picture James Hardisty. Caroline Ackroyd, Director of Commercial Finance for Skybet & Gaming, picture at their offices in Leeds.

“It is great to work at this level in a really exciting industry in the Yorkshire area. We have been able to recruit great people, we have great professional services and have an amazing quality of life.”

Having grown up around York and attended Pocklington School she graduated from Leicester University in chemistry before deciding to move into finance because, as she puts it: “I did not fancy spending the rest of my life in a lab coat in a laboratory somewhere.”

She learned her trade at Smith & Williamson in London, working on unit trusts and managing funds.

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However, after three years she wished to return to the region she knows as home and so, following a very brief stint in property development, began her first tenure with SkyBet in 2004.

Date: 3rd March 2017. Picture James Hardisty.
Caroline Ackroyd, Director of Commercial Finance for Skybet & Gaming, picture at their offices in Leeds.Date: 3rd March 2017. Picture James Hardisty.
Caroline Ackroyd, Director of Commercial Finance for Skybet & Gaming, picture at their offices in Leeds.
Date: 3rd March 2017. Picture James Hardisty. Caroline Ackroyd, Director of Commercial Finance for Skybet & Gaming, picture at their offices in Leeds.

Ms Ackroyd joined the business when the majority of its trade was done through television and not long after BSkyB rebranded the business to take its name. Having worked as a financial controller she would later move up to be deputy finance director during a highly successful seven year with the business.

Ms Ackroyd very much sees the firm’s evolution as a story steeped in Yorkshire.

“The head office is here, it will never be anywhere else. It was born in Harrogate ultimately. It is good that it has been able to grow here, naturally and recruit so many technology guys.

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“You have got good universities here. Sheffield and Leeds is great when it comes to tech guys.”

Ms Ackroyd was very happy with her time at SkyBet but wanted to grow her career further.

Following some work on delivery for BSkyB in Scotland she went to work for Coral, developing the interactive side of the business in Gibraltar.

It was, as she puts it, “starting with a blank sheet of paper”.

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“It really was two and half years of a really full on hard slog. We grew it from being almost loss-making to generating something like £50-£60m in its second year.”

However, when it was time for Ms Ackroyd to come back to Yorkshire 18 months ago, it was her old firm that secured her services. And while her role is director of commercial finance, her remit is far wider.

“I do not do a traditional finance role at all. I get involved in a lot more of the strategic elements of the business

“I have been involved in getting business ready to be a standalone corporate entity.

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“When we were sold from Sky to CVC (the private equity firm that owns SkyBet), the things we relied on BSkyB to do in terms of tax and legal audit, all of these functions we just did not have in place when we became a standalone company.

“I have been involved in getting that in place. Today we are fit to be a publicly listed company. We have built that infrastructure for the future.”

The company has been one of Yorkshire’s big success stories in the last couple of years.

Ms Ackroyd said that when it comes to gambling, the growth of mobile usage for placing bets has suddenly made the process more accessible.

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“SkyBet is quite lucky, we have positioned ourselves well as being almost predominantly for football and in that mobile genre, we have done quite well as a result of that. We do not have retail to drag us down. We never had retail. There has been a lot of consolidation in the market with other competitors.”

Ms Ackroyd said that her recent work in taking the business into Germany has been the most satisfying part of her career so far. The firm is already well-established in Italy and the German project is one that has fascinated and challenged the FD.

“It has been great, a really great experience for me. For me personally it has involved me slipping out of an FD role and more into a managing director role. People resonate with the brand. That is why we have chosen Italy and Germany.

“There is much more opportunity for us to grow but we are taking it slowly. We still have tremendous growth in the UK. A boost of 51 per cent in revenue last year.

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“With rapid growth it has been very important to make sure we are bringing the right people into the business. We try to operate a fairly lean business and there is a lot of expectation on people to deliver.

“That has been challenging to get that bedded in but we have done that quite well and retained people. It still feels a little but like those start-up years because the culture is so vibrant. The average is 32 so I am classed as old!”

Ms Ackroyd was honoured as one of the winners at last year’s Yorkshire FD Awards.

“There was 32 people shortlisted, really high calibre FDs. So I was really pleased to be recognised like this, particularly in the Yorkshire area.”

The FD Awards were sponsored by BDO, Sewell Group, Lockton and Walker Morris.