Gala Coral Group
 |
|
| Private | |
| Industry | Betting and Gambling |
| Fate | Merged with Ladbrokes plc |
| Successor | Ladbrokes Coral plc |
| Founded | Coral (1926), Gala (1991) |
| Headquarters |
Nottingham England |
| Revenue | £1.2 billion (2013) |
| Owner | Candover Investments, Cinven and Permira |
|
Number of employees
|
19,174 (2012) |
| Website | www |
Gala Coral Group Ltd was a British betting shop, bingo and casino operator formerly owned by private equity firms Candover Investments, Cinven and Permira. The Group headquarters are in Nottingham (Gala Bingo and Casino), Stratford, London (Coral), and Woking (Gala Coral Remote Gaming). However, in 2011, a decision was made to move substantial parts of the business to Gibraltar, including almost all of the remote gaming division. The group, through acquisitions and new developments had over 30 casinos and 1,800 licensed betting offices.
In July 2015, it was announced that the company would merge with Ladbrokes. In October 2015 it was announced that the group would sell the Gala Bingo business to investment trust Caledonia Investments for £241m. The merger with Ladbrokes was completed in November 2016, forming Ladbrokes Coral plc.
Joe Coral (born Joseph Kagarlitski, 11 December 1904 – 16 December 1996) began his bookmaking business in 1926 and, although primarily concerned with operating betting pitches at racecourses, together with his friend Tom Bradbury-Pratt, he ran speedway meetings at Harringay and opened a credit office in the West End of London in 1943.
He was, though, one of the first to take advantage of the new legislation and duly opened his first licensed betting office in 1961. The new law was, however, not intended to encourage betting and therefore shops were positively unattractive in appearance and devoid of any comforts.
Coral arranged a merger with another bookmaker, Mark Lane in 1971. By 1975 the company had become the Coral Leisure Group and had diversified to include a variety of other leisure activities comprising social clubs, casinos, hotels and later holiday camps.
In January 1981, however, the Coral Group was acquired by Bass plc and although it continued to retain the Coral name it became an integral part of the growing Bass Leisure.
In December 1997 Ladbrokes sought to acquire Coral from Bass. However, the acquisition was referred to the UK Monopolies and Mergers Commission and they concluded in September 1998 that Ladbrokes should not be allowed to buy the betting chain (however they were allowed to keep Coral's betting offices in the Channel Islands and integrated these into their own retail division).
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Wikipedia