European sports betting giant GVC Holdings was formally licensed Thursday by the Nevada Gaming Commission in a much shorter and less combative hearing than the company’s appearance in front of regulators earlier this month.
The Gaming Control Board recommended a two-year limited gaming license for GVC on May 8 after concerns were raised over the company’s business practices. The gaming commission supported the board’s suggestion by a 4-0 vote. During the commission hearing, GVC leadership didn’t challenge the two-year limitation.
“You have a leash and that gives me some comfort,” said commission Chairman Tony Alamo Jr. “I don’t think I need to shorten the leash. I’m very comfortable going forward that you won’t step on a nail.”
GVC, which is based in the Isle of Man and is the largest operator of sportsbooks in Great Britain and Germany, was grilled by Gaming Control Board members during a contentious four-hour hearing. Today’s commission meeting, by contrast, was notably subdued, lasting for roughly 90 minutes.
GVC CEO Kenneth Alexander was reprimanded by the control board at the earlier hearing for failing to properly supervise online gaming transactions in Turkey.
At the outset of Thursday’s hearing, GVC leadership took several minutes to apologize for its actions, including its behavior and conduct during the control board meeting.
GVC Chairman Lee Feldman told the commission the company has upgraded its compliance aspects to answer Nevada’s regulatory concerns. Virginia McDowell, the former CEO of Isle of Capri and a board member of GVC, will oversee the compliance activities and addressed the commission.
Gaming Commission member Deborah Fuetsch thanked GVC for bringing up the compliance changes because “this piece” was not part of the control board hearing.
“I appreciate what the company did today and not what happened at the board meeting,” Fuetsch said.
During the previous hearing, control board member Terry Johnson voted against recommending the company for a license. GVC must also provide the board with $100,000 to spend on future investigations into company compliance.
Alexander apologized to the control board as a whole and to Johnson individually for his actions and how he handled the line of questioning.
Feldman also addressed other concerns raised by the control board. He said several of those matters had been addressed since the control board meeting and the remainder were continuing to be explored and cleared up.
“This is a unique case,” Alamo said. “We don’t see a lot of interactive gaming providers. You had to overcome some obstacles from me. I appreciate everyone coming before us.”
Gaming Commission member John Moran Jr. said GVC has a “good presentation” and “answered a lot my questions.”
“A red flag for me is when one of the board members votes no,” Moran said.
The combative hearing with the control board could have jeopardized GVC’s sports betting partnership with MGM Resorts International.
Last summer, the companies announced an agreement to operate legal sports betting throughout the U.S. GVC and MGM said they would invest $100 million into the business, that would include an online betting platform.
Scott Butera, president of MGM Interactive Gaming, attended Thursday’s hearing, but did not address the commission.
The MGM-GVC joint venture planned to establish a separate headquarters in a “major U.S. technology hub,” create a leadership team, and form a four-person board with two representatives from each company. GVC will provide the technology, while MGM and Boyd will provide 15 state gaming licenses and access to MGM’s M Life customer rewards database, which has more than 30 million users.
Feldman told the commission the joint venture has opened an office in Las Vegas with a current staff of 14. Last fall, the partnership hired Adam Greenblatt, a former director of Ladbrokes – which was acquired by GVC in March – as CEO.
GVC owns several European sports betting brands, such as BWIN, Coral, Crystalbet, Eurobet, Ladbrokes and Sportingbet. GVC also owns PartyCasino and PartyPoker among its European-based online gambling brands. The company currently has more than 20 online licenses globally.
Howard Stutz is the executive editor of CDC Gaming. He can be reached at hstutz@cdcgamingreports.com. Follow @howardstutz on Twitter.
