British relocation for GVC Holdings

Prominent online casino and sportsbook operator GVC Holdings has announced that its shareholders have overwhelmingly approved a plan that is to see the firm relocate its corporate offices from the Isle of Man to the United Kingdom.

The London-listed firm is responsible for some of the world’s largest online casino and sportsbetting domains including PartyPoker.com, Bwin.com and Coral.co.uk and used an official Thursday press release (pdf) to declare that 99.98% of its stakeholders have endorsed a proposal to ‘relocate the company’s place of management and control and consequently its tax residence to the United Kingdom’.

Escalating enterprise:

Established in 2004, GVC acquired the United Kingdom-facing business of online sportsbook operator Sportingbet in 2012 before going on to pay approximately £1.1 billion ($1.4 billion) in order to purchase Gibraltar-based iGaming behemoth Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment. The enterprise subsequently shelled out around £4 billion ($5.6 billion) to buy prominent British bookmaker Ladbrokes Coral Group and inked a deal in July of 2018 to establish the MGM GVC Interactive LLC sportsbetting venture in partnership with American casino giant MGM Resorts International.

Prioritizing proximity:

According to a report, the Head of Media Relations for GVC Holdings, Jay Dossetier, used a recent interview to proclaim that the headquarters move will allow his firm to be closer to its largest market and ‘hold board meetings or shareholder meetings within the United Kingdom.’

Dossetier reportedly told iGamingBusiness.com…

“The relocation is just for the top holding company and has no impact on staffing or the operational side of the business. It has no impact of our tax bill or the effective tax rate we pay. Operationally, the online business will continue to be run from Gibraltar and the United Kingdom retail estate from the United Kingdom.”