london united kingdom key people ceo kenneth alexander products sports betting financial betting poker paradise poker casino paradise casino games backgammon revenue 1 577.2 million 2009 1 operating income 21.9 million 2009 1 net income 12.4 million 2009 1 owner gvc holdings plc website www.sportingbet.com sportingbet is a british e gaming operator owned by gvc holdings plc. the company was listed on the london stock exchange and was a constituent of the ftse smallcap index prior to its acquisition by gvc . contents 1 history 2 operations 3 sponsorship 3.1 football 4 references 5 external links history edit the company was founded by mark blandford in 1997 . 2 sportingbet acquired paradise poker in october 2004 . 3 on 7 september 2006 sportingbet reported that its then chairman peter dicks was detained in new york city on a louisiana warrant while traveling in the united states on business unrelated to online gaming . 4 louisiana is one of the few states that has a specific law prohibiting gambling online . in march 2007 all louisiana warrants involving the company were cancelled . 5 in october 2006 sportingbet announced paradise poker would stop taking deposits from us customers although most would be allowed to continue to play for another month . 6 additionally sportingbet sold all its us facing sportsbetting and casino businesses including sportsbook.com and sports.com to a group of private investors for 1 and an assumption of 13.2 million in debts . 7 in february 2007 sportingbet announced it was eliminating its paradise poker software and migrating players from there to its sportingbet poker platform . prior to this the two platforms had approximately the same number of players but the sportingbet platform had higher liquidity because that platform was part of a larger network . the brand name of paradise poker was retained . 8 in 2008 netbet pty ltd a company in south africa licensed the sportingbet brand for online gambling in south africa . in october 2012 sportingbet announced its board had agreed to preliminary terms for a 530 million takeover bid from uk bookmaker william hill and isle of man based gvc holdings . 9 under the terms sportingbet s australian and spanish operations were bought by william hill . 10 operations edit sportingbet operates local focused sportsbooks virtual games and casino sites and the online poker cardroom paradise poker . overall the company has over 2.5 million registered customers in 200 countries who place over one million bets casino poker sports and virtual games per day . sportingbet operates several websites . the largest of these are wholly owned and operated by sportingbet . they also use a system similar to a franchise in which independent website operators use sportingbet s centralized software financial services trading and customer service under license . these web sites receive a cut of the profits their customers generate . sportingbet s corporate offices are located in guernsey . they also have offices and call centres in the republic of ireland costa rica and australia . the plc is located in moorgate london . sponsorship edit the company sponsored championship football team wolverhampton wanderers from the 2009 10 season until the 2013 14 season . 11 this link up with a football club first began in january 2009 when bulgarian football club slavia sofia announced a 3 year sponsoring deal . as a result the logo of the company will appear on the club s shirts for the 2008 09 2009 10 and 2010 11 seasons of the bulgarian a pfg . sportingbet will also sponsor steaua bucuresti of romania for the 2009 10 and 2010 11 season . their logo will also appear on steaua bucuresti ii steaua s reserve team s shirt which now plays in liga . sportingbet have also sponsored division 1 victorian amateur football team banyulefc for the 2010 2011 seasons.ii . 12 football edit paok fc 13 2015 2018 references edit a b c annual report 2009 sportingbet founder joins mfuse board mobile marketing sportingbet acquires paradise poker professional poker.com 30 october 2004 adam goldman 2006 09 26 . sportingbet plc chairman detained in nyc . cbs news . archived from the original on 2007 10 14 . retrieved 2007 09 12 . bbc news online 2007 03 21 . sportingbet warrants cancelled . retrieved 2007 09 12 . paradise poker . us gaming legislation information . archived from the original on 2006 10 28 . reuters sportingbet exits u.s. by selling out for 1 reuters sportingbet writes off gaming software in new deal william hill gvc agree sportingbet takeover terms . reuters . retrieved 2 september 2016 . gvc completes acquisition of sportingbet . gvc holdings plc. retrieved 6 september 2015 . wolves.co.uk 2009 03 31 . major new sponsor announcement . sportgingbet press release sportingbet external links edit official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title sportingbet & oldid 738774602 categories poker companiesgambling companies of the united kingdomgambling 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