All bets have been off in the fast-changing and highlyregulated gaming and betting industry in recent years. It has seen everything from high-level consolidation between some of the industry’s biggest players, to the rise of online platforms and regulations struggling to keep pace. In the middle of all this, GVC Holdings has risen to FTSE 250 status through a series of acquisitions. A blockbuster £4bn takeover of Ladbrokes Coral Group has the company poised to take another step up the ladder. For head of legal, secretariat and compliance, Robert Hoskin, all this is being managed by a lean team of just four lawyers in each of Gibraltar and London. His key people are the heads of those two geographies, Ciara Lally and Tim Endersby. The team’s ambition, work ethic and adaptability are its key strengths during a time of substantial activity, says Hoskin. ‘It’s a young team, but there’s a lot of experience of online gaming, which is pretty key as it’s a challenging sector to navigate. The speed of the sector, the regulatory challenges and the laws, which haven’t always kept up with the internet and have struggled on occasion to deal with online gaming in particular, raise all sorts of issues.’ Another big project over the last few years has been creating individual contracts for all the third parties who provide GVC with games for its huge online casino offering. For Hoskin, the team’s M&A work ‘definitely stands out’. In late 2017, GVC launched a proposed £3.9bn takeover of rival Ladbrokes. A year earlier, it completed a contested takeover of gambling company Bwin for £1.1bn and in 2013 pushed through a £485m takeover of Sportingbet. The current takeover will see Ladbrokes Coral GC Lindsay Beardsell take control of the company’s legal team, with Hoskin’s focus shifting to his other roles. He comments: ‘They have their own legal team set up and it will be a case of their GC deciding what structure is needed for the combined business going forward. I hope we don’t lose decent people in this process.’ Addleshaw Goddard partner Nick Pearey comments: ‘[Hoskin] is very experienced, very calm under pressure and has seen it all. The gambling sector is going through a period of rapid consolidation. There is a push for scale and synergies against a backdrop of ever-changing regulation around the world. It is a dynamic and fast-paced environment to work in: GVC’s legal team thrives on this.’