BV Gaming casinos

BV Gaming Limited Information

Who are BV Gaming Limited?

BV Gaming Limited is the company behind the hugely famous and popular BetVictor brand. The existence of BV Gaming Limited is a little like the tail wagging the dog; BV Gaming Limited might own and operate BetVictor, but BetVictor came first. The holding company was created later as BetVictor expanded, and more websites and brands were added to the portfolio.

We suspect that most of you reading these words are already aware of the basics when it comes to BetVictor. You know, for example, that it’s a sports betting brand. You’ll also know that it’s every bit as big a deal offline as it is online, with plenty of betting shops dotted around the British Isles. You might not be as familiar with the finer points of its history and the other betting brands that BV Gaming Limited is associated with, though, and that’s what we’re going to dig into on this page. If you want to skip straight to the information about the BetVictor sister sites, you’ll find it at the bottom of this page.

An overview of BV Gaming Limited

The headquarters of BV Gaming Limited can be found in Gibraltar, which is a long way from where the company was founded. The business has been through a few name changes over the years, but the origins of the company we know as BetVictor today can be traced to William Chandler, who owned the Walthamstow Stadium for greyhound racing. It wasn’t William who founded the company, though – it was his sons Victor Sr and Jack, who took over the running of the stadium after William passed away in 1946.

You’ll note that the company is called BetVictor rather than BetJack. The irony is that Jack was far more interested in running the greyhound racing track and the bookmaking business during those early, formative years than Victor. However, Victor Sr passed away unexpectedly in 1974, and his son, Victor Jr, inherited his share of the business. The younger Victor had been working in the hotel industry in Spain at the time of his father’s passing but instantly gave that up and returned home, eager to get involved in the running of the family business. It was he who began to expand the bookmaking side of the business and gave the company its identity.

Moving into the modern era

When the internet began to provide new avenues and revenue streams for betting companies in the 1990s, BetVictor was quick to take advantage. It wasn’t called BetVictor yet, though – the company was still known as “Victor Chandler.” Just as Victor Jr was quick to recognise the possibilities offered by the internet, he was also quick to recognise the savings available by relocating abroad. The headquarters of Victor Chandler was officially relocated to Gibraltar in 1998. Countless dozens of formerly UK-based iGaming and casino companies have followed suit in the years since then.

The first attempt to take the old “Victor Chandler” name and rebrand it as something better suited to the digital age came in 2004 when the company became VC Bet. Some of you might recall betting with the company under that name, but it never caught on. Victor Jr, who was still in control of the company at this point, decided to revert back to “Victor Chandler” in 2008. It wasn’t until four years later that the BetVictor name came along. That was the last major change that occurred during the company’s long period of family ownership. Michael Tabor took control of the company in 2014, having previously made major investments in the firm and become its majority shareholder.

Adding new brands

For almost its entire existence, BetVictor (under whatever name it was using at the time) was the only betting brand that BV Gaming Limited operated. In recent years, we’ve seen that begin to change. In 2020, BV Gaming Limited became the vehicle via which the Cyprus-based betting company PariMatch entered the UK market. The relationship between the brands is unusual – PariMatch is a standalone company, and the UK is the only territory in which it operates under another company’s licence.

PariMatch isn’t the only other operator that BV Gaming Limited has a relationship with. The company also works with Gamesys Operations Limited in the operation of Heart Bingo, which is the official bingo and casino site of Heart Radio. Interestingly, both BV Gaming Limited and Gamesys Operations Limited list Heart Bingo as a white-label casino site with the UK Gambling Commission, making it difficult to say who the true owner of the website is. 2023 saw BV Gaming Limited forge a new business relationship, leading to the launch of TalkSport Bet. It’s effectively the BetVictor sportsbook with TalkSport branding stamped on it, but the fame of the TalkSport name (and all the free advertising that goes with it) has helped to make the site a success.

BV Gaming Limited and the UKGC

Like every trustworthy casino network or gambling company that operates in the United Kingdom, BV Gaming Limited holds a full UK Gambling Commission licence. It’s licence number 39576, and the current iteration of it has been in force since November 2014. Regrettably, the operator hasn’t been able to keep the licence clean. In February 2022, the company was ordered to divest ill-gotten funds and issue a public statement by the regulator after being deemed guilty of several breaches of its licence. BV Gaming Limited also made a payment in lieu of a formal financial penalty.

This disciplinary action was taken after the UKGC conducted a compliance assessment, in which it was found that several of BV Gaming Limited’s processes around preventing vulnerable people and guarding against the risk of money laundering weren’t up to scratch. The Commission noted that BV Gaming was quick to act on these failings, submitting a remedial action plan within two days of being notified of the outcome. In total, the company had to divest £352,000 that was deemed to have been gained through breaking licence conditions and paid £1.73m in lieu of a fine.