Gala Coral Eurobet
- Gala, the gaming group, announces the acquisition of Coral Eurobet, the bookmaker and internet gaming operator, for a consideration of £2.18bn. The deal creates Europe’s pre-eminent integrated betting and gaming company with strong market positions in licensed betting offices, bingo and casinos, and a high quality multimedia offer.
- Jun 05, 2008 Embracing the technological evolution of quality video streaming and truly encapsulating the excitement generated from playing within a land based casino, online gaming giants Galacasinos. and sister company Eurobet. have expanded their games portfolio further with the launch of Live Casino.
- Betting has never been better with pre-event and in-play markets available from all over the world. Get the latest betting odds at Coral. Don't Bet Silly, Bet Savvy!
Gala Bingo is an online bingo and casino offering under the ownership of GVC Holdings. History; Operations; References; External links; Gala Bingo was originated in 1991 as a division of Bass plc.It later became an independent company, and then became the Gala Coral Group after acquiring Coral Eurobet in 2005. After the sale of its 126 clubs in 2015 to Caledonia.
UK casino firm Gala is buying up Coral Eurobet for £2.18bn ($3.87bn), in a move which will create Europe's biggest privately-owned gaming group.Gala's casinos and bingo halls will be merged with Coral's betting shops and dog tracks.
The enlarged empire will be worth more than £4bn, with more than 2.2 million customers visiting 1,450 outlets.
Gala chief executive Neil Goulden said betting and bingo would benefit from deregulation.
Both firms also have a strong presence on the internet, which Mr Goulden said would be the biggest advantage of merging.
'We are going to combine their Eurobet business with our fledgling interactive business - internet, TV and telephone betting,' said Mr Goulden.
'Competitive threat'
Additionally, casinos will soon be allowed to advertise and stringent membership rules will be loosened.
'This is a great vehicle to take advantage of deregulation, with a full suite of assets that will benefit,' said analysts Robin Chhabra at Evolution Securities.
'It is a competitive threat to other players like William Hill and Rank, but it's only mildly negative for them.'
Coral is 16%-owned by management and 84%-owned by buy-out firm Charterhouse, having been previously owned by Ladbrokes and Morgan Grenfell private equity.
Gala Coral Group
In August this year it announced it was considering a stock market flotation but did not rule out a sale at the time.
Gala Coral Eurobet Club
Since Charterhouse backed the management buy-out in 2002 Coral's annual operating profits have more than doubled to £145m on sales of £5.4bn.