BEN’S BLOG: ‘Blue Horseshoe says ‘Buy GVC’
Β [dropcap]B[/dropcap]log, in 1987, Gordon Gekko sent out his soldiers, to spread the word that ‘Blue Horseshoe’ was buying Annacote Steel. I have no doubt though, that now, in 2014, a main stay of GG’s portfolio, is taken up by GVC Holdings.
GVC, who are they? You’ve never heard of them? Yes, you have. They’re Sportingbet. And they’re flying.
Run by a protege of online betting legend, Mark Blandford; Kenneth Alexander, in my opinion, is one of the shrewdest movers, of our generation, in the betting industry. Known as ‘Go West’, by his peers, the guy is fearless, acting as the Vladimir Putin of the betting world. Whilst the corporate wets, piss their pants, at the thought of actually doing business somewhere they might actually beat the punters for a few quid, because a regulator might send them a really scarey letter. Kenneth forgets about wasting his time in the UK, barges the do-gooders and regulators out of the way, all over the world; pitches up, and makes a book wherever he so chooses. And he does it bloody well, winning an incredible margin of over 9%.
What was that thudding sound I just heard?
Oh yes, it was other online bookmakers all over the UK passing out.
At Star, we would be delighted to win 3% on a year, and most online bookmakers would struggle to win much more than 5%, Bet365 trading to a significantly lower margin. GVC have foreign markets, such as Brazil and Turkey, all to themselves. The punters play with Sportingbet, and virtually Sportingbet only, they aren’t as fussy and spoilt as you lot, and they just enjoy cracking away like good punters should do. And of course, rocking on, on the online casino, between races. If GVC have to slightly drop their margins in the future, and they win a couple of percent less, they are still well ahead of the game. If the Big Three were to win 2% less, they’d be in the river; and they’re peering over the edge of the bridge anyway.
The subsidised mug-punters, playing with your pension money, down at the stock-market, don’t rate GVC. They’re letting it go on the cheap. Why’s that then? Because they bet in Turkey, its a ‘grey’ area, and they’re worried it won’t last. This is just completely wrong. Sportingbet have been busy in Turkey for years, Northern Cyprus is a gambling hot-spot, with betting-shops the size of warehouses, and if Turkey have any real ambitions to live their dream, and join the EU hand-out club, they have to turn a blind eye to betting. Turkish people love to gamble, and its only going one way, as their own football league, and general interest in the sport, grows and grows.
GVC have got a long way to go, Kenneth Alexander is THE man that CAN, and I have NO DOUBT, that he will be taking them ‘there’. Valued at Β£231million, I would rather own them than many other firms supposedly worth much more, and paying a bollock-bursting dividend of between 10 and 15% a year, and with so many countries still for Kenneth to invade, they surely have the potential of being worth multiples of that, in years to come. Star jumped aboard the gravy-train at Β£1.25, we’ve pressed-up several times along the way, sticking the dividends back in, and even at the new price of Β£3.80.”
Looks as though Blue Horseshoe is saying ‘Buy GVC’.
Please note this blog is provided for informational purposes only and any opinions, estimates, forecasts, predictions, conclusions, recommendations or other statements regarding external companies made by the author are theirs alone and do not constitute the opinions, estimates, forecasts, predictions, conclusions, recommendations or statements of Star Sports.
In other news:
When you walk around central London, you often see tasteful circular blue plaques outside some of the more prominent residences. They are put up to show respect to former achievers that once lived there. I am rather worried though, that there’s a bit of a leftie conspiracy going on. Yesterday, I ran past the former home of our Finest Leader, in Chester Square, and there was bizarrely no plaque to remember her. When jogging further on, at my very slow pace, I started to notice that most of the blue plaques were in memory of sculptors, poets, and general Shakespearey types. Oh dear. They’ve even got their oars in and found a way of ruining that nice tradition too.
B x