The company was founded in 1946 by Chandler's grandfather, William Chandler, after several years ownership of William Stadium. William Chandler was succeeded by Victor's father, also named Victor. Victor Sr. died suddenly in 1974 and the business passed over to Victor Jr., who at the time was working in the hotel industry in spain. Shortly after assuming control of the family business, Chandler lost one of the business' integral assets; prime racecourse pitches and began concentrating on other aspects of developing his firm, namely credit betting through laying bets to high rolling businessmen in the Far East. The company now claims to turn over in excess of £1billion and have over a half a million customers in more than 160 different countries.
BetVictor has sponsored several sporting events over the years, most notably the grade 1 listed Victor Chandler Chase at Ascot racecourse, the Victor Chandler British Masters golf tournament and the grade 1 listed Nunthorpe Stakes from 2000–2004 as the Victor Chandler Nunthorpe Stakes and then 2005–2006 as the VCBET Nunthorpe Stakes. The Victor Chandler Chase has become, for man, a yardstick for one of the Cheltenham Festival's showpiece events, the Queen Mother Champion Chase.
In 2004 and 2005 Victor Chandler International ran a televised poker tournament called the Victor Chandler Poker Cup which became established as one of the richest events on the circuit. With £250,000 to the tournament's first winner, Harry Demetriou and then £200,000 won in its second year by Tony Bloom, the competition attracted well known professionals from all over the world. Combine that with celebrity appearances from John McCririck, Teddy Sheringham, Ken Doherty and EastEnders' actor Michael Greco, the event commanded substantial viewing figures from the seven hour-long programmes shown on Sky Sports 2.
BetVictor currently sponsors the professional European Tour golfer, Graeme Storm and professional snooker players, 'The Darlin' of Dublin', Ken Doherty, 'On-Fire Maguire', Stephen Maguire and, 'The Outlaw', Joe Swail. Additionally they endorse poker professional, and TV pundit Roy 'The Boy' Brindley. BetVictor is currently one of four official betting partners of the TV channel Racing UK.
On Wednesday 8 July 2009 Victor Chandler International announced they would sponsor Coca-Cola Championship team Nottingham Forest F.C. during the 2009–2010 football season for a "six figure fee". The name Victor Chandler will appear on the front of home, away and goalkeeper shirts, as well as on replica adult shirts. At the same time they also announced that former Forest legend Viv Anderson has joined the company as Football Ambassador. As part of the sponsorship deal, Victor pledged to supporters he would buy each person with a season ticket, and a BetVictor account, a new season ticket for the 2010/11 season should Forest win the Football League Championship.
