On February 27, Barry Gibson officially took over as the chairman at GVC Holdings. This begins a new governance under his stewardship. This coompletes a succesion plan announced by the company in November, 2019.

In an to update investors, it was explained that Gibson had taken control of the chairman responsibilities, ending the 12-year tenure of Lee Feldman. Gibson is an expert in mass marketing strategies. He is the former chairman at Homeserve Plc and served as the group chief executive at Littlewoods Plc. He also served as the senior independent director at Bwin.party Digital Entertainment.

Gibson takes over the position at a time when significant change is expected at GVC. They are seeking to expand their operation internationally, while simultaneously being forced to make some adjust to the U.K. market, which expects to see even more regulatory changes. Analysts believe that the stock price is about to take a major hit, as odds on GVC’s share price declining is the likely bet.

However, some analysts believe that these regulatory changes will have a minimal effect on the company. GVC Holdings is coming off a 2019 where the company had an earnings before interest, tax, amortization and depreciation (EBITDA) for 2019 between £670 million to £680 million ($877 million to $890 million). That was a bit of a surprise to many, following the action by new regulations imposed by the U.K. which limited the maximum stake of fixed-odds betting terminals.