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Spain – GVC Holdings to sell 50 per cent stake in Sportium Sports Betting to Cirsa

By - 22 July 2019

GVC Holdings, the British company that owns Ladbrokes Coral, has announced an agreement to sell its 50 per cent stake in Sportium Sports Betting to Cirsa, the Spanish gaming company controlled by private equity firm Blackstone.

The price of the operation, pending regulatory authorizations, amounts to €70m. GVC, which acquired the stake through the purchase of Ladbrokes Coral last March, said it will become a B2B supplier to Sportium as part of the deal.

Sportium is a joint venture between Ladbrokes and CIRSA launched in 2013.

The news puts an end to a dispute between the two partners of over the fact that the deal changed when GVC bought out Ladbrokes in 2018 which gave Cirsa the right to buy 50 per cent of its partner at market prices. In turn, Ladbrokes alleged that Cirsa also changed the joint venture deal in 2018, when Blackstone acquired the company from Manuel Lao.
Despite initiating arbitration proceedings, the two sides had held friendly talks to resolve the dispute.

The goal of GVC after this operation is to focus on online gaming, through brands such as bwin – GVC’s main sports betting brand. GVC Holdings has softened a blow to revenues caused by tighter regulation in the UK due to improved online performance. T he owner of Coral and Ladbrokes, have however said 900 of their shops are at risk of closure in the United Kingdom after changes to maximum stakes on fixed-odd betting terminals (FOBTs).

According to Kenneth Alexander, CEO of GVC, “the sale of the participation in Sportium will simplify the business in Spain, where bwin is one of the online leaders, we have enjoyed a good relationship with Cirsa and we are delighted to continue supporting them through a new agreement as a supplier of Sportium.”

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