Cassava Enterprises
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| Public | |
| Traded as | : |
| Industry | Gambling |
| Founded | 1997 |
| Headquarters | Suite 601/701, Europort, Gibraltar |
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Key people
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Brian Mattingley (chairman) Itai Feiberger (CEO) |
| Revenue | US$454.7 million (2014) |
| US$80.0 million (2014) | |
| US$56.9 million (2014) | |
| Subsidiaries | Dragonfish |
| Website | 888holdingsplc |
888 Holdings plc is a company which operates several high-profile gambling websites. It was founded in 1997. It has an operating subsidiary, Cassava Enterprises, which is incorporated and operates under the laws of Gibraltar. Brothers Avi and Aaron Shaked owned approximately fifty percent of the parent-company through family trusts. Another pair of brothers, Shay and Ron Ben-Yitzhak, control approximately eleven percent through a family trust. It is listed on the .
The business was founded by Israeli entrepreneurs Avi and Aaron Shaked and Shay and Ron Ben-Yitzhak in May 1997 as Virtual Holdings Limited. Casino-on-Net was launched at that time and an administrative centre was established in Antigua. In 2002 Reef Club Casino and Pacific Poker were launched. In 2003 its administrative center was moved to Gibraltar. It was first listed on the in 2005. Talk of listing began in mid-2005, as other private online gambling companies began to make the move to public ownership, with HSBC advising 888 on the IPO, which reached an estimated initial valuation £550 to £650 million. The final valuation upon flotation was £590 million. 888 Holdings owned several subsidiaries and brands, which it began to bring under the singular "888" brand name in early 2006.
Until 2006, 888 Holdings operated Pacific Poker in the US, before online gambling became illegal in that country. However, 888 was not as reliant on US revenues as its other UK competitors, leading to less of an impact. In late 2006 Ladbrokes and 888.com announced merger discussions. However, in April 2007 the companies announced that due to recent changes of Tax laws in the UK and fears of legal actions by the US government, both parties had amicably agreed not to continue discussions. In March 2007 888 announced its acquisition of Bingo business of Globalcom Limited for up to $43.4 million in cash. In 2008, 888 Holdings was elevated to the FTSE 250 Index, with its 2007 revenues increasing by $56 million from 2006—with casino games accounting for 55% of the company's gross. In its first half year, the company's bingo business earned $14 million in revenues.
888.com overtook the 4th place on the poker network list in April 2012 after almost having tripled their peak number of players from July 2010 to February 2012. In February, 2015, 888 Holdings confirmed it is in "advanced talks" over a reported $1.47 billion USD (£750 million) takeover by William Hill. This prompted an 18 percent jump in its share price. The company operates under a gaming license granted by the government of Gibraltar. Under the terms of the gaming license Cassava Enterprises owns and operates a number of gaming sites (both for real money and educational sites). In 2014 888 Holdings turned down an offer to acquire the company for 700 million pounds. That year the company revenues began to increase due to mobile customers on its websites, and the company's sites hat 17.8 million paying users.
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