BOOKMAKER Pagebet plans to create 75 jobs as it moves to new £1.5m headquarters.

In the past two weeks, the company has opened three betting shops, taking its total to 51, and has also changed its name from Reuben Page to Pagebet.

Its new headquarters, at Belmont Business Park, Durham, houses the company's support services and is the centre of its trading division, text service, telephone betting and online betting service, which will be launched soon.

The company employs 250 people at its headquarters and chain of shops. It is hoping to recruit 60 people to work on its telephone and Internet betting operation, with a further 15 administration and support staff.

Up to 80 telephone operators will provide up-to-date information for clients calling in bets.

Austin Carney, co-owner of Pagebet, said: "We've got big plans for the business and moving into our first purpose-built headquarters, where there is plenty of room to grow sets the scene for our planned expansion."

In the past fortnight, Pagebet opened its 50th shop, in Darlington, together with branches at Garforth, near Leeds, and Crosspool, in Sheffield.

Mr Carney said: "The new sites are significant businesses for us. We are well established in the North-East now, so we have pinpointed Yorkshire as an area for further expansion.

"Darlington is an important link between the two regions and securing a licence there in the face of stiff competition was a real coup.

"We are aiming to expand by ten newly-created shops a year in addition to any acquisitions, and see a lot of this growth being in Yorkshire. We believe the region has great potential with the enthusiasm for sport there."

During the past year, the company has also expanded its senior management team, attracting experienced managers from national chains.

Development manager Mark Winder joined from the Tote, operations manager Gillian Gunn and projects manager Graham Tower came from Coral, while David Grouse, who has joined as commercial manager, has many years experience in racing and betting. Financial controller Ian Blackburn and human resources manager Claire Hedley have joined from the Wearside company, A Thompson and Sons, and Jennings motor dealers.

When Pagebet's online betting is launched, it will be one of the first independent operations in the country to link high street, Internet and telephone betting.

Pagebet has grown from the six-shop Reuben Page chain, established in Derwentside, County Durham, in 1918, which Mr Carney and David Archer, who met at school in Houghton-le-Spring, Wearside, bought in 1989.