3: GVC Holdings (2016)
Even without the £1bn acquisition of bwin.party, GVC Holdings would have improved on last year’s eighth place ranking, yet there’s little doubt the deal has transformed the company from a mid-tier player into an industry heavyweight.
GVC revenues last year amounted to approximately €250m, however, when adding on the larger bwin.party contribution, pro-forma revenues were €810m. Revenues in H1 2016, derived from a plethora of big name brands such as bwin, Sportingbet, partypoker and Foxy Bingo, totalled €442m, with clean EBITDA of €91m.
While there remains some question marks over the source of some of these revenues, the firm has been keen to highlight that more than half are now derived from regulated and/or taxed markets – which includes sports betting from within its key German market – while the contribution from the unlicensed Turkey has fallen below 10%.
Noises from within the GVC camp suggest the bwin.party integration has been going well – if not better than expected. Assisted by the shrewd additions of former Playtech duo Shay Segev and Liron Snir, the firm is on track to realise cost synergy targets, tech migrations are well underway, while the firm recently refinanced its debt at a much more palatable interest rate.
CEO Kenny Alexander recently admitted he had underestimated the growth potential of the bwin.party brands, which he has already introduced to South America and re-introduced to Greece, a market where bwin.party derived €30m in revenues in 2012. Product enhancements, particularly around the expansion of third-party gaming content, is already bearing fruit with advancements in real-time marketing expected to be implemented before the end of the year.
The firm anticipates the integration of the two businesses to complete by Q2 2017, which could well open the door to further M&A opportunities – GVC was reported to have shown interest in Amaya in recent months. Alexander is on record as wanting one more big deal to take GVC into the FTSE100, and if he manages to pull that off then next year’s Power 50 number one spot could be up for grabs.