Formerly GVC Group Holdings, Entain currently operates several global gaming brands, including Ladbrokes, Coral, Bwin, PartyPoker , SportingBet, Gala Bingo, Eurobet and Betboo. Crucially it is already a partner with MGM in the burgeoning US sports betting and gaming market, where their joint venture BetMGM is already challenging the leading DraftKings and FanDuel brands.

The WSJ reports that MGM’s latest offer is the second approach after an approximate $10bn all-cash overture was ‘rebuffed’. However it appears this new offer will have a substantial stock component.

The move echoes the recent deal put together which saw Caesars Entertainment agree a £2.9bn takeover of William Hill which is expected to be completed in Spring. Currently sports betting stocks in the US have been outperforming most other sectors, with investors keen to buy in after DraftKing’s move into the stock market and the huge jump in value of Penn National after it acquired a large stake of media company Barstool Sports.

All this activity will also be putting pressure on MGM governance to make a bigger play in sports betting with existing partner Entain being its obvious choice. As with the Caesars/William Hill tie up, there would still be a question as to how much MGM wants the non-US gambling assets and whether they would be divested further down the line, but Entain’s investment in areas with massive potential such as South America should be appealing to an international firm.

Meanwhile Entain has confirmed that the appointment of chief governance officer Robert Hoskin to the company’s board of directors, while Jane Anscombe has stepped down as non-executive director to pursue other opportunities. Anscombe joined the Board in June 2017 and has chaired the remuneration committee and served on the nomination, CSR and audit committees. Her successor as remuneration committee chair will be announced in due course.

Barry Gibson, Chairman of Entain, said: “As previously stated, Robert has made an outstanding contribution to Entain in his 15 years at the Group. He is responsible for regulation, legal and governance, all of which are central to our long-term growth plans to build a responsible and sustainable business of global scale and world class standard.

“On behalf of the Board I would like to thank Jane for her significant contribution and commitment to Entain over the past three years. In particular I would like to recognise her hard work and engagement on the company’s remuneration and strategic transition. Entain has become a stronger company and Jane has our thanks for her efforts.”

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In his new role, Leese is to be responsible for spearheading Pronet Gaming’s efforts of expansion into newly regulated markets around the world, as well as driving awareness about the business and its products and services. 

He joins the organisation following a three year stay at William Hill, where as director of emerging markets Pronet was responsible was leading the operator’s foray into new jurisdictions. 

Ioannis Skoulides, Pronet Gaming’s new chairman of the board, said of welcoming Leese to the organisation: “We are thrilled that Alex has joined Pronet Gaming as chief executive officer. 

“This is a pivotal time for the company given our aim to achieve listed status in the future. Alex’s expertise in international gaming operations will be instrumental as we embark on expanding our global footprint whilst also optimising our product and service offering.”

Prior to joining William Hill, Leese held various managerial roles at online firms Sportingbet, GVC Holdings and Offside Gaming over a ten-year career in the igaming sector. 

The new position is to see Leese be based out of Pronet Gaming’s new commercial headquarters in London, as well as undertaking regular travel to visit the firm’s other offices in Malta and Curacao on a regular basis. 

Leese added on the appointment as CEO: “I am delighted to be joining Pronet Gaming at such an important time for the business as it embarks on global expansion. 

“Pronet Gaming already has an incredible client base of innovative and exciting operators, and I look forward to ensuring they continue to receive a world class product and experience.” 

The appointment of Leese as CEO comes shortly after Pronet Gaming was sold to a private equity group for an undisclosed sum.

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As a result of the newly expanded link-up, the agreement has been deepened to include the Gala brands and Roar Digital, GVC and MGM’s joint venture in the United States.

Optimove combines marketing and data to autonomously generate actionable insight, empowering marketers to deliver personalised customer campaigns across multiple channels. 

Via this approach, GVC is to be enabled to plan, automate and optimise marketing strategies to build player loyalty, leading to significant increases in retention, engagement and lifetime value.

In turn, GVC is to execute its global marketing strategy across various regions, brands and regulations, with fully customisable multi-channel campaigns, to target a variety of customer segments.

Asaf Cohen, vice president of revenue at Optimove, commented: “GVC is a long-standing client and this renewal solidifies the relationship between companies even further. We’ve seen GVC grow and evolve over the years, and we’re very excited to have some part in its global growth.” 

Through its proprietary technology platform, GVC offers sports betting, casino, poker and bingo through a number of online brands including bwin, Sportingbet, partypoker, partycasino and Foxy Bingo.

Francois Orhan, global director of CRM at GVC, added: “As we’ve established ourselves to be one of the leading gaming brands in the world, we face a growing challenge in keeping the management of customer engagement in a simple and yet diverse fashion, that will cater for players of different brands, regulations and countries.

“Our long-term business relationship with Optimove has impressive track record. We look forward to seeing what the future holds.”

This week GVC provided further details of a commitment to increase safer gambling messages and support for problem gamblers, agreed last month alongside bet365, Flutter Entertainment, Sky Betting and Gaming and William Hill.

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Lauded as a significant long-term agreement, Playtech’s casino products and services have been rolled out on a variety of GVC’s brands, including bwin, Sportingbet, partypoker, PartyCasino, Foxy Bingo, Foxy Casino and Crystalbet.

Playtech is to integrate with the operator’s technology to deliver a seamless player journey across all verticals and channels, providing individuals with access to more than 600 titles.

Shay Segev, GVC’s Co-COO, commented: “Our strategic partnership with Playtech goes from strength to strength, driving growth in both of our businesses. Playtech’s content has already proved hugely popular with our customers, where it is already live and we look forward to rolling it out in further markets over the coming months.” 

The UK, Spain, Italy and Georgia have become the latest key markets in which Playtech’s content have been launched by GVC, while bwin and Sportingbet will also take the exclusive casino tab already offered on GVC’s Ladbrokes and Coral brands.

Furthermore, the partnership is also live across Belgium and Greece, where GVC holds a casino licence for its Sportingbet and Vistabet brands, with further expansions to come in regulated markets through the rest of the year and into 2020.

Shimon Akad, Playtech COO, added: “This programme of key launches represents the first stage of what we believe will be a significant, long-term partnership with GVC. GVC’s desire to bring Playtech’s products and services to all of its customers across its portfolio of leading brands underlines Playtech’s position as the preeminent technology partner in regulated and fast-growing markets. 

“We have a longstanding partnership with GVC and we are pleased to see it grow. This deal is a real testament to the hard work of all our teams, especially the innovation of their content and services.”

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The current deal sees H5G gain extensive reach into an array an new markets for the firm via a selection of GVC’s leading brands, including bwin and Sportingbet, using the Gameiom platform.

Moving to secure an enhancement of the recently inked agreement will see H5G’s reach extended throughout Europe, a move which the organisation is particularly pleased with.

In a media statement, H5G explained that the fresh agreement enables the firm to continue “to actively develop opportunities, and to work with governing bodies throughout Europe and the United States, to continue its aim of content distribution for all regulated territories”.

“We’re proud to expand our partnership with a dynamic global online betting operator like GVC, our aim will be to help them gain market share in established European markets and new territories like the US,” says Anthony Singer, founder and chief executive officer of High 5 Games.

High 5 Games has recently unlocked a steady stream of “mobile ready” games through its remote game server vault, while close to 100 HTML5 H5G slot games will be converted and ready for delivery to European markets and the US by the end of year.

Powered by Vault, the “highly optimised HTML5 pipeline” will provide “incredible performance on all platforms in key markets, delivering great games for GVC customers,” including Golden Gladiator, All That Cash and The Legacy of Cleopatra’s Palace.  

Liron Snir, GVC’s chief product officer, commented, “We are pleased to be able to offer H5G’s exciting content to more of our customers across Europe, further enhancing the breadth and quality of our casino offer.”

This move comes a day after GVC published its Q3 trading report for the period ending 30 September, in which the group revealed it remains on track to achieve its full year objectives.

Addressing the update, Kenneth Alexander, GVC CEO, stated: “The group’s performance in the quarter was very pleasing, with momentum continuing across the online and European retail divisions.”

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The designer and supplier of electronic gaming machines, table games, and interactive products, as well as a range of products and service, is to supply the global sports betting and gaming group with in excess of 600 titles.

Andy Whitworth, GVC head of content and commercial management, explained: “As a real-money gaming aggregator, AGS, with the recent acquisition of Gameiom, already has an impressive portfolio of content, and is committed to bringing on more high-quality suppliers, to ensure we give our customers an exciting player experience and diverse library of games and play features.

“That, coupled with AGS’s robust, scalable, and easily integrated igaming Platform, gave us the confidence to enter into such an important agreement that we expect to grow with time.”

Via a seamless aggregation solution, access to the full AGS library of content partners includes games from developers such as 1×2 Gaming, Ainsworth Game Technology, Gaming Realms and Reflex Gaming.

David Lopez, AGS president and chief executive officer, added: “Partnerships like this one with GVC, which owns such powerful brands as Ladbrokes, Coral, bwin, partypoker, Sportingbet, PartyCasino, and Foxy Bingo, are exactly why we acquired Gameiom.

“Through our powerful iGaming Platform, we will provide GVC with robust and secure delivery of AGS and third-party slot content, for an incredible online and mobile player experience that truly gives GVC an edge in the competitive, real-money gaming space.”

This follows a deal made alongside PokerStars Play, relating to the provision of its social white-label casino (social WLC), which will see a turnkey mobile and web casino solution delivering an interactive social gaming experience deployed via iOS and Android devices.

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The firm has signed an agreement with GVC Holdings, a UK-based and listed company, via its European subsidiary, EML Payments Europe.

GVC is currently one of the world’s largest sports betting and gaming groups, operating in both the online and retail sectors.

The company and its subsidiaries own a comprehensive portfolio of established brands that serve betting clients in over 20 countries including Ladbrokes, bwin, Coral, Sportingbet, partypoker, PartyCasino and Gala.

A schedule to roll out EMLs reloadable winnings card to GVCs European brands is expected to be confirmed over the next 90 days. Given uncertainties in the pace of brand rollouts and of rate of adoption in new markets, EML is unable to accurately estimate future Gross Debit Volume (‘GDV’) that will be derived from this program.

The EML portfolio offers innovative payment technology solutions for payouts, gifts, incentives and rewards, and supplier payments. The firm manages more than 1100 programs across 19 countries in North America, Europe and Australia.

Signing the GVC program will have no earnings impact on EMLs financial year ending 30 June. The news helped EML shares move up 6.3%, to $1.50 per share, in early morning trading.

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