GVC investigated over former Turkish online gaming business' potential offenses

GVC announced on Tuesday that HM Revenue & Customs has widened its probe into suppliers the company behind the Ladbrokes and Coral betting brands used to process payments in Turkey to now include one or more entities within the FTSE 100 gambling group itself. 

According to GVC officials, the UK tax authorities had on Monday informed the group they were examining “potential corporate offending”, the specific details of which HMRC had “not yet identified”.

The group said the probe was in relation to a section of UK bribery law regarding bribes to retain business or commercial advantage, the Financial Times reports. GVC said it was “surprised by the decision to extend the investigation in this way and [was] disappointed by the lack of clarity” given by the regulator.

GVC sold its Turkish business in December 2017 ahead of the completion of its £4bn takeover of Ladbrokes Coral. Gambling has long been strictly controlled by the state in Turkey. Private betting companies have to apply for government tenders in order to offer gambling.

GVC had originally intended to sell its Turkish operations in return for five years of payments based on the business’s future performance. Instead, it decided to offload the entity more quickly, saying in its 2017 annual report that it was “firmly” in the interests of the business and shareholders to forgo the earn-out.

Last week, the bookmaker said that its chief executive Kenny Alexander was stepping down after expanding GVC from a small gambling tech group into one of the world’s biggest bookmakers over the 13 years he was in charge.