GVC Holdings PLC is a British sports betting and gambling company. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
History
The company was founded in Luxembourg in 2004 as Gaming VC Holdings. In 2010, it was reorganised as GVC Holdings. In 2012 GVC and William Hill bought Sportingbet, with William Hill taking the Australian and Spanish markets, and GVC taking the rest of the world. GVC acquired Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment in 2016 for £1.1bn after a bidding battle with rival gambling group 888 Holdings, leading to a marked recovery in GVC's financial situation. Since the acquisition, bwin.party has returned to growth after many years of falling sales. In December 2017, GVC Holdings agreed to buy Ladbrokes Coral in a deal which could be worth up to £4 billion. The acquisition was completed in March 2018. In mid-2018 a shareholder rebellion forced out GVC director, Peter Isola, after reports showed that two executives at the company earned a disproportionate £67 million in salary. In July 2018, the UK owner of Ladbrokes and Coral agreed a $200 million deal with MGM Resorts to capitalise on the newly liberalised US sports betting market. On March 22, 2019, GVC confirmed that chairman Lee Feldman would leave the company on or before the company's annual general meeting on June 5. While Feldman was overdue to leave under UK corporate governance code that recommends chairs of listed companies not stay in position longer than nine years, the news came two weeks after Feldman sold £6m worth of his GVC shares and CEO Kenny Alexander sold shares worth £13.7m, which led to GVC's share price falling nearly 14% in a single day. Barry Gibson took over as Chairman upon Lee Feldman's departure. In July 2020, Shay Segev, GVC's chief operating officer, succeeded Alexander as CEO following his "surprise departure" after 13 years in charge.
Operations
GVC Holdings is headquartered in the Isle of Man and has licences in more than 18 countries. The Group employs over 28,000 employees and contractors in locations across Europe, Asia, North and South America.
GVC-owned brands
GVC operates consumer-facing brands in the online gambling industry, including:
Sports labels
Ladbrokes Coral Group
As of 29 March 2018, GVC Holdings took over the Ladbrokes Coral group. This includes the UK Ladbrokes and Coral bookmaker estate, a new business for GVC.
Sportingbet was established over 15 years ago in 1998 and was acquired by GVC in March 2013. It provides online and mobile sports betting, casinos, games and poker. In October 2012, Sportingbet announced that it had agreed to preliminary terms for a £530 million takeover bid from both GVC and William Hill. Under these terms, Sportingbet's Australian and Spanish operations were bought by William Hill.
Betboo
Betboo was established in 2005 and provides online bingo, sportsbook, casino and poker to South American customers. It was acquired by the GVC Group in July 2009.
Gamebookers
Gamebookers is a full-service sportsbook that was initially acquired by PartyGaming in 2006. GVC then acquired the brand in February 2016 as part of the acquisition of bwin.party.
VistaBet
Neds
Neds was established in 2017 and serves the Australian sports betting market. It was acquired by GVC in 2018 for $A95 million.
Games labels
partypoker
partypoker was founded in 2001 and in the early 2000s was the world's largest online poker site. The company's US-driven revenues were hit by the passing of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act in the United States. The company merged with Austrian sport's betting company bwin in 2011, and was acquired by GVC in 2015. In 2016 partypoker launched a windows mobile app and saw significant growth after bwin.party was acquired by GVC in the same year.
partycasino
Following the 2011 merger of PartyGaming PLC and bwin Interactive Entertainment AG, partycasino became one of GVC's leading casino brands.
CasinoClub
CasinoClub was originally launched in 2001 and acquired by GVC in 2004, it largely operates in German-speaking markets and has more than 15,000 active customers.
Gioco Digitale
Gioco Digitale was the first fully regulated gambling site on the Italian market launched in 2008. It has positioned itself as a gambling portal for casual users, with a focus on bingo and casino products. The company was originally acquired by bwin Interactive Entertainment AG in 2009.
Cashcade
Ltd is a UK-based online gambling marketing company that is now a wholly owned subsidiary of GVC Holdings. Cashcade was originally acquired by PartyGaming PLC in July 2009. The company became part of the GVC group when it was purchased as part of the acquisition of bwin.party digital entertainment in February 2017. Cashcade owns FoxyCasino.com and FoxyBingo.com as well as a portfolio of other brands such as Cheeky and Think Bingo websites.
Foxy Bingo
This online bingo site was first launched in 2005 and the brand is owned by Cashcade. During its advertising history it has had many campaigns featuring Foxy - a human-sized foxmascot. He wears a smart suit and has a northern accent. Throughout its brand history, there have been several celebrity tie-ups including with Katie Price and Joey Essex.
Foxy Casino
Foxy Casino was established April 2015 and is the slots-led counterpart of its sister brand Foxy Bingo. It has over 300 slot games that are powered by Dragonfish, the B2B arm of 888 Holdings. In 2017, Foxy Casino also rebranded with Heather Graham as the new face of the casino brand.
