Entain’s Past Haunts Former Executives as Turkish Bribery Case Lands in Court
The long-running controversy surrounding Entain’s historic Turkish operations resurfaced this week, as former chief executive Kenny Alexander and two other ex-directors appeared in a London court on bribery and fraud charges.
Alexander, 56, who steered the gambling group — then called GVC Holdings — from a modest online betting outfit into a FTSE 100 powerhouse, faces accusations of conspiracy to bribe and conspiracy to defraud between 2011 and 2018. The charges relate to the company’s former business in Turkey, which was sold in 2017 as regulators began tightening their scrutiny of unlicensed overseas markets.
Also in the dock were Lee Feldman, GVC’s former non-executive chairman, and Richard Cooper, its . All three men are accused of concealing the origins of revenue generated from Turkish gambling responsible for compliance and monitoring. None of the defendants have entered pleas.
A statement from the Crown Prosecution Service in August said eleven individuals were charged following a multi-year investigation into GVC’s former Turkish-facing arm. The business, which had operated under local partners, was alleged to have used improper payments to restrictions before being offloaded to Ropso Malta in 2017.
Alexander has previously rejected any wrongdoing, telling the Financial Times the case would be “vigorously defended.”
Entain itself — now home to brands such as Ladbrokes and Coral — has not been charged. In 2023, the company entered into a £585 million deferred prosecution agreement with the CPS to settle its corporate liability over the identical Turkish matter, admitting failures to prevent bribery during the period in question.
The charges now centre on whether senior executives personally conspired to conceal or facilitate those practices. The alleged offences predate GVC’s landmark £4 billion takeover of Ladbrokes Coral, a deal announced in 2017 that catapulted the company into the top tier of the .
Alexander, a former Ladbrokes employee from Scotland, had earned a reputation as one of the gambling industry’s most aggressive dealmakers. He joined GVC in 2007 and spent over a decade pursuing acquisitions that transformed the group from a small sports betting operator into one of the world’s largest gaming firms. His abrupt resignation in 2020, officially for personal reasons, was followed months later by questions about GVC’s historical dealings in Turkey.
Feldman, who stepped down as chairman in 2019 later than cashing in a large portion of his shares alongside Alexander, had previously overviewn the company’s board during its major M&A streak. Cooper, who served as CFO until 2016, was responsible for GVC’s financial strategy during its period of rapid growth.
Entain said it has fully cooperated with the investigation and stressed that the issues concern “former executives and historic practices” unrelated to its current management or operations.
The trio were granted bail on Monday and are expected to appear at Southwark Crown Court on November 3.
For Entain, the scandal’s shadow lingers. The company has faced a turbulent year, marked by executive turnover and regulatory probes in Australia and the UK. fragile as the firm works to convince markets that its past — and the practices that built its empire — are firmly behind it.
