888 has been cleared by the UK Gambling Commission of any regulatory penalties following a review of its licence.
A review of 888’s licence was initiated by the UKGC after FS Gaming sought to acquire a stake in the gambling company last June.
FS Gaming took a 6.5 per cent stake in the firm during that month, with a subsequent proposal centred around the potential appointments of Lee Feldman, Kenny Alexander and Stephen Morana as Chair, CEO and CFO, respectively.
However, with each previously holding senior leadership positions at GVC Holdings, the now rebranded Entain, 888 was in communication with the UKGC about the shareholding and proposal.
During this period, GVC was also under an HM Revenue & Customs investigation into the company’s former Turkish business, which concluded in December last year with a £585m settlement from Entain with the Crown Prosecution Service.
888 terminated its discussions with FS Gaming in July and ended up going in a different direction with its senior team appointments, hiring Per Widerström as CEO in October.
A review of 888’s licence was commenced by the commission shortly after the operator ended talks with FS Gaming. This review has now concluded with no penalties or further action necessary.
888 noted that the UKGC concluded its review “without imposing any licence conditions, financial penalties or other remedies on the group after being satisfied that the risk to the licensing objectives under the Gambling Act that led to the review have been appropriately managed and adequately mitigated”.
