GVC Holdings is one of the biggest gambling companies in the world and owns some of the most popular brands in the world including Ladbrokes Coral, partypoker, Sportingbet and Neds.
The company is significantly downsizing its presence in the UK retail market in the next 12 to 18 months as GVC is expected to close more than 1,000 retail stores across the UK.
There are currently close to 3,500 retail stores which provide employment to thousands of workers in the UK.
The closures will result in the loss of over 5,000 jobs and cause GVC revenues in the UK to dip significantly.
GVC is confident that the loss of revenue from the UK retail market will be offset by the increasing revenues being generated by its global iGaming market as well as its sports betting market expansion in the United States.
GVC has reason to be confident in its iGaming offerings as financial results for 2018 was released earlier this week and they confirm that GVC’s iGaming ventures have done really well for the company.
Some of the online casino brands under the GVC umbrella include Gioco Digitale, Foxy Bingo, CasinoClub, PartyCasino, Gala and PartyPoker. The combined net gaming revenues from these brands was £351.4 million which was a 16 percent year on year increase. Galabingo.com saw an 11 percent year on year increase but it was partypoker that had the most impressive results with a 40 percent year on year increase.
The online casino business under the Ladbrokes Coral brand was labelled as particularly pleasing to the company. GVC is confident that the iGaming business under this brand can be scaled significantly in the coming years.
Sports Betting Will Play A Bigger Role
GVC also operates a number of sports betting brands such as Sportingbet, bwin, Ned, Coral, Eurobet, Crystalbet and Ladbrokes. These brands were responsible for bringing in the bulk of the company’s profits. They generated a total of £1.54 billion plus another 20 percent in online net gaming revenues.
The total net gaming revenue that GVC recorded for 2018 was £3.57 billion which is a 9 percent year on year increase while gross profits were at £2.4 billion. The company is confident that it will continue to do well in 2019 as it looks to expand its sports betting operations in the United States as there are a number of states looking to legalize sports betting this year.