This article needs to be updated.(May 2019) |
Company type | Subsidiary |
---|---|
Industry | Gambling |
Founded | 1997 |
Headquarters | London, United Kingdom |
Key people | CEO Kenneth Alexander |
Products | Sports betting Financial betting Poker (Paradise Poker) Casino (Paradise Casino) Games Backgammon |
Revenue | £1,577.2 million (2009) [1] |
£21.9 million (2009) [1] | |
£12.4 million (2009) [1] | |
Owner | Entain plc |
Website | www |
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.
The company was founded by Mark Blandford in 1997. [2] Sportingbet acquired Paradise Poker in October 2004. [3] On 7 September 2006 Sportingbet reported that its then chairman, Peter Dicks, was detained in New York City on a Louisiana warrant while traveling in the United States on business unrelated to online gambling. [4] Louisiana is one of the few states that has a specific law prohibiting gambling online. In March 2007, all Louisiana warrants involving the company were cancelled. [5]
In October 2006, Sportingbet announced Paradise Poker would stop taking deposits from US customers, although most would be allowed to continue to play for another month. [6] Additionally, Sportingbet sold all its US-facing sports betting and casino businesses, including Sportsbook.com and Sports.com, to a group of private investors for $1, and an assumption of $13.2 million in debts. [7]
In February 2007, Sportingbet announced it was eliminating its Paradise Poker software and migrating players to its Sportingbet Poker platform. Prior to this, the two platforms had approximately the same number of players, but the Sportingbet platform had higher liquidity because that platform was part of a larger network. The brand name of Paradise Poker was retained. [8]
In 2008, Netbet (Pty) Ltd, a company in South Africa, licensed the Sportingbet brand for online gambling in South Africa.
In October 2012, Sportingbet announced its board had agreed to preliminary terms for a £530 million takeover bid from UK bookmaker William Hill and Isle of Man-based GVC Holdings. [9] Under the terms, Sportingbet's Australian and Spanish operations were bought by William Hill. [10]
Sportingbet operates local-focused sportsbooks, virtual games and casino sites, and the online poker cardroom, Paradise Poker. Overall, the company has over 2.5 million registered customers in 200 countries, who place over one million bets (casino, poker, sports and virtual games) per day.
Sportingbet operates several websites. The largest of these are wholly owned and operated by Sportingbet. They also use a system similar to a franchise, in which independent website operators use Sportingbet's centralised software, financial services, trading, and customer service under license. These web sites receive a cut of the profits their customers generate.
Sportingbet operates offices and call centres in the Republic of Ireland and Costa Rica. The PLC is located in Moorgate, London.
The company sponsored Premier League, Championship and League One football team Wolverhampton Wanderers from the 2009–10 season until the 2013–14 season. [11] This link-up with a football club first began in January 2009, when Bulgarian football club Slavia Sofia announced a 3-year sponsoring deal. As a result, the logo of the company appeared on the club's shirts for the 2008–09, 2009–10 and 2010–11 seasons of the Bulgarian A PFG. Sportingbet also sponsored Steaua Bucuresti of Romania for the 2009–10 and 2010–11 season. The logo also appeared on Steaua Bucuresti II, Steaua's reserve team's shirt, which now plays in Liga. Sportingbet also sponsored division 1 Victorian amateur football team Banyule FC for the 2010–2011 seasons. [12]
Betfair is a British gambling company founded in 2000. Its product offering also includes sports betting, online casino, online poker, and online bingo. Business operations are led from its headquarters in London, alongside satellite offices in Ceuta, Dublin, Leeds, and Malta. In February 2016, Betfair merged with Paddy Power to create Flutter Entertainment.
Ladbrokes Coral is a British gambling company founded in 1886. Its product offering includes sports betting, online casino, online poker, and online bingo. The Ladbrokes portion of the group was established in 1886, and Coral in 1926. In November 2016, the companies merged to create Ladbrokes Coral Group. Since March 2018, it has been owned by Entain. Prior to its sale, Ladbrokes Coral was listed on the London Stock Exchange, and was a member of the FTSE 250 Index.
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.
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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. 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. Today, the site is run by Entain and is available in 14 different languages. In addition to the worldwide partypoker.com, partypoker also offers dedicated separate networks for French, Italian, Ontarian, Pennsylvanian, New Jerseyan & Michigander players.
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Playtech plc is a gambling software development company founded in 1999. The company provides software for online casinos, online poker rooms, online bingo games, online sports betting, scratch games, mobile gaming, live dealer games and fixed-odds arcade games online. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
Bwin Interactive Entertainment AG, formerly known as Betandwin, is an Austrian online betting brand acquired by Entain PLC. The group operated under international and regional licences in countries like Gibraltar, the Amerindian reserve of Kahnawake (Canada), and Belize; and Germany, Italy, Mexico, Croatia, Austria, France, and the United Kingdom in Europe. Bwin offered sports betting, poker, casino games, and soft and skill games, with most revenue coming from poker and sports betting. Bwin had over 20 million registered customers in more than 25 core markets. Competence centres were located in Vienna, Stockholm, and Gibraltar.
Peter F. Dicks is a London-based investment manager and venture capitalist. He was the co-founder of Abingworth PLC, one of the earlier venture capital funds in Europe. He is also the former chairman of Sportingbet PLC, one of the world's largest sportsbooks. He is currently a committee vice-chairman with Mercia Fund Management.
Boss Media AB, with its main headquarters in Växjö, Sweden, was a developer of software and systems for digitally distributed gambling entertainment. Boss Media was publicly traded on the Stockholm Stock Exchange from 1999 to 2008, when GEMed bought the company and rebranded it to GTECH Gaming.
Sportsbook.com is a privately held online gaming firm, featuring sports betting, online poker, casino games and horse race betting that caters to the U.S. market.
Pinnacle is an online gaming website that was founded in 1998. Since its inception, Pinnacle has become a medium-sized, fully licensed, online sportsbook. Pinnacle Sports rebranded to Pinnacle on June 1, 2016 after acquiring the pinnacle.com domain name.
Mr Green is an international online gambling company founded in 2007. Its product offering includes sports betting and online casino. In January 2019, Mr Green was acquired by William Hill for £242m. In July 2022, William Hill was subsequently acquired by Evoke plc for £2.2 billion.
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