I'm just a born gambler

JOINING the stock market is always a gamble. But for self-confessed punter David Harding it could pay off to the tune of nearly £5m.

That is what the William Hill chief executive looks likely to collect in the coming three years with next week's flotation of the betting shop chain. It will be the biggest payday of 46-year-old Harding's varied career, which has included the marketing launch of Jaguar's XJ40 saloon, setting up one of Britain's biggest internet share-trading businesses and heading Prudential's life and pensions business.

William Hill, the second-biggest bookmaker after Ladbrokes, is floating at a tricky time - record shop chain HMV had a lacklustre debut while pubs group Punch Taverns slashed its float price.

But the betting market is buoyant - the World Cup should generate £250m of business - and Harding is confident. 'Our industry is flying, it's humming - we have a good story to tell,' he says.

Unlike HMV and Punch, Harding is taking that story to private investors who are being targeted in the float, which aims to raise £340m. Small investors have shown an appetite for William Hill before. Three years ago, when it was being floated by Japanese bank Nomura, about 90,000 private punters applied for shares, but institutions did not share their enthusiasm.

Nomura pulled the float at the 11th hour, compensating small investors with a £20 free bet. In the end, it was sold to a management buyout backed by venture capital groups Cinven and CVC Partners for £825m. A 10% stake was taken by management, headed by John Brown, then chief executive and now chairman. Some senior management will now sell shares, but the top executive directors are holding on to all of their equity in the float, which is expected to value William Hill at about £922m.

Harding did not join William Hill until autumn 2000 so he has no shares in the group, hence a lucrative potential pay package, which includes a £2.7m float bonus, half in shares and half in cash.

'It's a lot of money, but I'm a pie-and-pint man,' he says. 'I have what I need so it is just security for the future. If I had wanted to make a fortune, I should have got involved with venture capitalists earlier - my skills would have been useful to them. They know about money, but they don't necessarily know about running businesses.'

Harding does. After an MBA in marketing, he started at Jaguar cars, where he had to tell people on the shop floor they had to improve quality. He became a consultant specialising in turning round businesses, after which he joined mobile-phone group One2One. There, he grew 'sick of clearing up other people's messes'.

The chance to run his own show came when he led American stockbroker Charles Schwab's UK arm. A spell as head of Prudential's life assurance and pensions business followed. It was not an obvious step, but Harding says: 'In business, it boils down to what does the customer want and how do you best give it to them?'

In the Prudential's case, Harding decided one of the best ways to deliver was to cut costs. He was the person who killed off 'the man from the Pru'.

After becoming deputy chief executive of the Pru's Scottish Amicable subsidiary, Harding was approached by William Hill. It took five minutes to decide to jump. 'I'm a punter and have been from an early age,' he says. 'My mother used to work in a betting shop. I can remember going there with her.'

His gambling skills - he relaxes by playing blackjack in a London casino - were developed through some tough learning experiences. 'When I went to college at Lanchester Polytechnic in Coventry, I was naive,' he says. 'I hooked up with worldly-wise lads and remember betting and losing my grant chequein the first week. Iworked in a pub for the term to pay for food.'

His urge to win is strong. He winces when I describe William Hill, with 1,500 shops, as running second to Hilton-owned Ladbrokes, with 1,900 outlets.

'We are number one in phone betting, the most profitable in internet betting and I believe our shops give Ladbrokes a run for their money.'

Harding says William Hill should benefit from a market buoyed by a betting habit spurred by the National Lottery, the abolition of betting tax and the impending liberalisation of gambling laws.

But given a history of job changes - perhaps a legacy of a much-travelled childhood with his father, a Royal Navy petty officer - is he in for the long haul at William Hill? 'I want to build a business here that I can look back on,' he says.