A British bookmaker that specialises in developing gaming markets overseas is gearing up for a summer stock market flotation that should see it valued at more than £25 million.

Betshop, which claims to be Europe's fourth largest retail betting operator, is poised to hire nominated advisers to prepare for a listing on AIM, London's junior market, possibly before the World Cup football tournament in June.

The company, based in Wimbledon, was founded and is run by managing director Gabriel Chaleplis. It plans to float between 25 per cent and 30 cent of its equity to raise funds to back overseas expansion and possibly embark on some small-scale mergers and acquisitions.

Mr Chaleplis, a former sports and marketing director at Eurobet who founded Betshop some ten years ago, is hoping to capitalise on last year's surge in investor interest in gambling stocks.

In an interview with Times Online, he shrugged off concerns the sector might have become overplayed.

Although a successful float would see Mr Chaleplis, as Betshop's majority shareholder, become a multi-millionaire on paper, he will not sell shares at the float and will remain at the helm of Betshop when it becomes a listed company.

"I don't want to exit and I'm not going to cash out; I want to stay running and growing the company," Mr Chaleplis said. "We have had significant growth and now we feel that we want to develop that growth further. We want to enhance our geographical footprint, and we are also considering possible strategic partnerships."

Mr Chaleplis, and his marketing director Mark McGuinness - who was previously involved in the flotation of betinternet.com - will together sell the Betshop idea, which is based on franchises and both an online and offline business, to potential investors.

The vast majority of its business interests are concentrated in countries where the gaming regime is liberalising, particularly Italy, where Betshop operates 620 shops.

Betshop also operates a further 30 franchises in Germany, Cyprus, Romania and Curacao and is considering expanding into Poland, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Turkey.

Some 90 per cent of the bets it takes are on football, where it aims to attract the higher margin punter betting a low stake on multiple odds hoping for a bumper payout. Betshop takes individual bets up to €150 and pays out a maximum of €50,000.

Pre-tax profits for its 2004 to 2005 financial year came in at more than €1 million based on turnover of €110 million.

Mr McGuinness also reveals that Betshop has been approached by three companies that want to explore the idea of developing betting shop franchises in the UK. It is known that Ladbrokes and William Hill are both interested in the franchising concept, while 888.com is exploring developing the international side of its sports gaming operations.

Betshop may in future also enter the casinos market.

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