GVC mulls UK M&A opportunities
CEO Kenneth Alexander says firm will look to increase regulated business in 2015 with UK likely target
GVC Holdings chief executive Kenny Alexander (pictured) says the firm plans to take a “closer look” at regulated markets in 2015 with M&A in the UK a potential starting point.
Speaking to eGaming Review after his firm announced a 22% increase in Q4 net revenues, Alexander said GVC planned to increase its exposure in regulated territories with the UK Point of Consumption (PoC) tax likely to kick-off a wave of consolidation.
“We are looking at regulated markets more closely than we were before,” Alexander said.
“The UK is the most sensible one to look at. We don’t intend to do what Sportingbet did in the past, so we are not planning any significant [marketing] push in the UK – we might crank up a little bit but nothing serious,” he added.
Alexander predicted the UK’s new 15% profit tax would have a greater impact on the market than many had anticipated, with some of the more modest-sized players set to struggle to meet costs.
“I think when you see the PoC tax and the actual impact it will have, you might see some M&A taking place,” Alexander said.
“Some of smaller ones [operators] we could take a look at,” he added. “We would probably keep the brands rather than crunching all the brands together – I prefer to take some costs out and keep the brands.”
However, the market shouldn’t expect a bwin.party-style ‘volume to value’ shift, with Alexander adamant the firm had “no plans to exit any of the markets we are in at the moment”.
In fact the company, which operates the Sportingbet, Betboo and CasinoClub brands, will look to enter additional markets in the coming months with Asia still on the agenda for 2015.
Alexander described its Asia strategy as “a work in progress” but said he was hopeful of appointing someone to head up its Asia-facing business “in the next few weeks”.
Yesterday’s positive Q4 results disclosure ensured a sixth consecutive quarter of growth for the business and saw it end the year on a high with an unaudited 23% growth in full-year net gaming revenues (NGR).
GVC also revealed 2015 had started well with average daily NGR up 46% to £779,000.