Kenny Alexander (businessman)

Last updated

Kenny Alexander
Born
Kenneth Jack Alexander

April 1969 (age 55)
Kilwinning, Ayrshire, Scotland
Education University of Glasgow
OccupationBusinessman
TitleFormer CEO, GVC Holdings
Term2007-2020
Successor Shay Segev
SpouseCaroline Alexander

Kenneth Jack (Kenny) Alexander (born April 1969) is a British businessman, and was the chief executive (CEO) of GVC Holdings, a gambling company based in the Isle of Man, from 2007 to 2020.

Contents

Early life

Kenneth Jack Alexander was born in April 1969, [1] in Ayrshire, Scotland. [2] [3] He grew up in North Ayrshire, and earned a bachelor's degree in accountancy from the University of Glasgow. [4]

Career

In 1991, he joined the accountants Grant Thornton, where he worked for five years and qualified as a chartered accountant. [4] In 1996, he joined Hazlewood Foods as a financial controller. [4]

In 2000, he joined Sportingbet, having seen the job advertised in the Racing Post , and by 2007 had risen to become head of its European operations. [4] [5]

Alexander became CEO of GVC in 2007, when it was listed on AIM and valued at £26 million. [4]

In February 2016, he concluded the £1.1 billion reverse takeover of GVC's larger competitor Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment. [4]

In April 2017, it was speculated that Alexander and GVC were looking to take over the bookmakers William Hill. [6]

In December 2017, it was announced that GVC would take over the bookmakers Ladbrokes Coral for up to £4 billion, with Alexander as CEO, and a likely FTSE 100 index entry. [7]

In July 2020, it was announced that Alexander would retire, to be succeeded as chief executive by Shay Segev, the chief operating officer. [8] The Guardian called a "surprise departure". [9]

Personal life

He is married to Caroline Alexander, [10] and lives with his family in Perth, Scotland. Before his retirement in 2020, he was based in London during the week. [6]

His hobbies include no-limit cash poker, and when he worked at Sportingbet, considered becoming a professional gambler, about which his wife was "horrified". [6] He owns a string of racehorses, [11] including star mare Honeysuckle, and bets every day, either on horses or football. [4]

In May 2021, he was convicted of taking and driving away a vehicle without the owner's consent, drink driving and driving without insurance. [12]

Related Research Articles

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Paddy Power is an Irish gambling company founded in 1988. Its product offering includes sports betting, online casino, online poker, and online bingo. Business operations are led from its headquarters in Dublin, alongside a satellite office in Malta. In February 2016, Paddy Power merged with Betfair to create Flutter Entertainment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ladbrokes Coral</span> British-based betting and gambling company

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Hill (bookmaker)</span> Bookmakers in the United Kingdom

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Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment was an online gambling company, formed by the March 2011 merger of PartyGaming plc and Bwin Interactive Entertainment AG. Formerly the world's largest publicly traded online gambling firm, it was best known for its online poker room PartyPoker, World Poker Tour and its sports betting brand Bwin.

partypoker is an online poker card room. Launched in 2001 by PartyGaming, the site has had up to 80,000 players logged-in and was the largest online card room until 2006. In 2011 PartyGaming merged with bwin to form Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment. As of 2017, it remains among the largest online poker card rooms. The site was endorsed by Mike Sexton, the former host of the World Poker Tour television show. The domain partypoker.com attracted at least 3.6 million visitors annually by 2008 according to a Compete.com study. In 2016, after a protracted bidding process between 888 Holdings and GVC Holdings, Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment accepted GVC Holdings' bid for £1.1 billion. Today, the site is run by GVC Holdings and is available in 14 different languages. In addition to partypoker.com, partypoker also offers dedicated networks for French and Italian based players via partypoker.fr and partypoker.it, respectively. GVC Holdings also acquired PartyCasino during the 2011 merger of Party Gaming.

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Sportingbet is a British online gambling operator, owned by Entain plc. The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE SmallCap Index prior to its acquisition by GVC holdings.

Coral is a chain of betting shops in the United Kingdom, owned by Entain. The Coral business was established by Joe Coral in 1926. It grew into an entertainment conglomerate before undergoing a series of ownership changes starting in 1981. As of 2015, Coral had 1,845 shops across the country.

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PartyCasino is an online casino first launched in 1997 under the name Starluck Casino before relaunching again in 2006 as a fully integrated platform. The casino offers over 500 games ranging from casino classics like Blackjack and Roulette to a wide variety of online slots.

Lee Michael Feldman is an American lawyer and businessman. Feldman is the managing partner of the private equity firm, Twin Lakes Capital Management, LLC. and the former chairman of GVC Holdings, the FTSE 100 Index gambling conglomerate.

Shay Segev is a business executive in the technology sector and the CEO of DAZN, the over-the-top (OTT) sports subscription streaming service. Described by Gaming Intelligence as a tech “futurist”, Segev is the former chief executive of Entain plc, previously GVC Holdings, a global sports betting and gambling company listed on the London FTSE 100 index. Before that he was chief operating officer of Playtech, a gambling software development company listed on London's FTSE 250.

References

  1. ↑ "Kenneth Jack ALEXANDER - Personal Appointments (free information from Companies House)". beta.companieshouse.gov.uk. Retrieved 22 December 2017.
  2. ↑ Dunkley, Daniel (13 September 2015). "I've been betting since I was 13, but Bwin must be my best punt" . Retrieved 22 December 2017– via www.thetimes.co.uk.
  3. ↑ "Betting firms can count on canny Scots". www.scotsman.com. Retrieved 22 December 2017.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Martin, Ben (22 December 2017). "The odds are on FTSE 250 place for GVC chief" . Retrieved 22 December 2017– via www.telegraph.co.uk.
  5. ↑ Barber, Bill. "From meat factory to gambling big hitter – the rise of Kenny Alexander - Horse Racing News - Racing Post". Racing Post . Retrieved 22 December 2017.
  6. 1 2 3 "Kenny Alexander: The poker-playing GVC boss on the hunt for deals". 7 April 2017. Retrieved 22 December 2017.
  7. ↑ "British gambling firm GVC seals Ladbrokes takeover". Reuters. 22 December 2017. Retrieved 22 December 2017.[ dead link ]
  8. ↑ Gill, Oliver; Foy, Simon (16 July 2020). "Boss of Ladbrokes owner GVC steps down". The Telegraph. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
  9. ↑ Partridge, Joanna (21 July 2020). "HMRC widens investigation into Ladbrokes owner GVC". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
  10. ↑ "Alliance News Detail - London Stock Exchange". www.londonstockexchange.com. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  11. ↑ "Kenneth Alexander | Horse Records | Racing Post".
  12. ↑ Buchan, Jamie. "Former Ladbrokes CEO took delivery car from Perth kebab shop". The Courier. Retrieved 22 May 2021.


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