SoccerShop brand history

From a single bookmaking family to a national name

The SoccerShop story starts long before the brand itself. The business is widely traced to LM Bookmaker, a South African bookmaking operation founded by Lance Michael in the mid-1990s — 1995 is the year quoted in the operator's own public chronology. That makes the underlying company one of the longest-running independent bookmaking businesses in the country, decades older than most of the online-first brands that dominate advertising today.

For years LM Bookmaker worked the classic South African retail model: licensed betting shops, over-the-counter wagers on soccer, horse racing and rugby, and personal relationships with regular punters. The retail DNA matters, because it explains almost everything about how SoccerShop later behaved online: a preference for simple layouts, plain-English terms, voucher-friendly payments and human customer service that you could also reach by walking into a shop.

The SoccerShop retail division launched in 2011. The name was a deliberate bet on South Africa's most popular sport, and it worked: the shop network grew steadily around Gauteng and later into Mpumalanga and the Eastern Cape. In 2015 the company added an online platform, taking the same soccer-first positioning onto the web with a sportsbook, lucky numbers and, later, casino games.

Ownership and licensing

The online operation is run by Kalmia Trading 1085 (Pty) Ltd, registration number 2017/167101/07, holding bookmaker licences from the Mpumalanga Economic Regulator (licence numbers quoted publicly include 9-2-1-09502 and 9-2-1-09973). The registered operating premises sit at Willow Corner Shopping Centre in Delmas, Mpumalanga — which is also why the town hosts one of the flagship SoccerShop branches. The platform states compliance with POPIA, South Africa's data-protection law.

The 2026 rebrand: SoccerShop becomes ReadySetBet online

On 6 March 2026 a General Notice (No. 783) published in the provincial gazette described a proposed change of online trading name and URL for Kalmia Trading 1085. The company's public explanation was pragmatic: the SoccerShop name was increasingly read as a sports-equipment retailer rather than a bookmaker. On 8 July 2026 the online brand relaunched as ReadySetBet, with the old soccer shop domain redirecting to the new one. Crucially, the rebrand applied to the online identity: the retail branch network continued to trade under the SoccerShop name, which is why the brand remains visible on high streets even as the website changed.

Why the brand still matters

For players and researchers the lineage is useful context. The sportsbook that exists today under the ReadySetBet name is the direct continuation of the SoccerShop product: same operator, same licences, same retail network, same support channels. Anyone who held a SoccerShop account, a voucher balance or a branch loyalty relationship can understand the transition through that continuity rather than treating ReadySetBet as an unknown new entrant.