SIMON THOMAS
Mr Hippodrome
Matt Broughton took a trip to the heart of London’s West End to pay a visit to one of the city’s most exciting landmarks – The Hippodrome Casino – and talk with its Executive Chairman, Simon Thomas.
Matt: Tell me about 2025; what were the big ‘moments’ for The Hippodrome last year? Simon: To be honest, every year is special at the Hippodrome, but 2025 was particularly special for several reasons. Firstly, it was the 125th anniversary of the Hippodrome. It’s an amazing building; it’s had so many different lives over the years, and we’re just continuing a tradition of entertainment brilliance in the West End. But 125 years ago, it opened originally as an indoor circus.
The first part of 2025 was hard work because we were desperate to get the regulatory reform over: lots of entertaining, wining, dining... showing this building off. We are a flagship. We’re a perfect exponent of what a casino should be in London and the whole of the UK, and what was possible with deregulation. We don’t proclaim it, we demonstrate. I dealt with so many policy makers, MPs, influencers and journalists, and that culminated in the regulations actually being passed in July, which I think will be looked back on as a pivotal moment for British history. That allowed us to finally increase the number of slot machines to 80 and also create what I think is definitely the best sportsbook in the UK, and I think it’ll take a lot of time before anyone beats it. The Paddy’s Sportsbook, which we opened on the 1st of October, has redefined sports betting and sports viewing in the UK. So, 2025 was a very busy year, and it was an awful lot of fun.
Matt Broughton and Simon Thomas
All of that leads to a better customer experience for not just my customers, but anybody coming to the West End
8 APRIL 2026
Matt: You spoke at the European Casino Awards, and there you talked about the work you’ve done with local authorities. Can you tell us a little about what that actually involved? Simon: It’s much more than just the local authorities - it’s a whole local community. When somebody comes here, I can control their experience; I can control everything in here. I can create a safe environment with wonderful products that people can have an awful lot of fun with, and I can staff it with the most fantastic people, all of which results in people having great experiences. And when you think of the world we’re in now, we’re past the peak of “stuff”; people want experiences now, and it’s the fun economy - as Bo Bernhard coined the phrase - and this is what we do really well here. But my customers’ experience is not isolated to just here; it’s their whole journey getting in here, and it’s a journey getting home.
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