GVC Holdings, a global sports-betting and gaming group, last week announced the appointment of two new directors to its board. David Satz will join as an independent non-executive director, and Robert Hoskin will be promoted to the board as an executive director in the role of chief governance officer.
Commenting on the appointments, Barry Gibson, Chairman of GVC, said:
“I am delighted to be welcoming two such high caliber individuals to our board. David has unrivalled regulatory and legislative expertise in the all-important U.S. gaming market. His knowledge and insight will be hugely additive in helping us to achieve our ambition of being the leading operator in the U.S. through BetMGM, our fast-growing joint venture with MGM Resorts.
“Robert has made an outstanding contribution to GVC in his 15 years at the group, and his promotion is richly deserved. The fact that regulation, legal and governance are now represented at board level will give us even greater oversight of these critically important areas, all of which are central to our long-term growth plans.”
Satz played a critical role in successfully lobbying for online gaming and sports betting to be licensed in the U.S. He was most recently senior vice president of government relations and development for Caesars Entertainment Corporation in Las Vegas, where he worked from 2002 to 2019. He was responsible for overseeing Caesars’ government activities for more than 52 properties in 15 states in the U.S. and several other countries around the world. He previously spent 16 years at the U.S. law firm Saiber Schlesinger Satz Goldstein, where he had a particular focus on the gaming industry and played a key role in numerous regulatory and legislative initiatives throughout the US. David has a degree in economics and political science from Ithaca College and a law degree from Seton Hall University.
“I have long been an admirer of GVC’s diversified business model, industry-leading brands, and unique proprietary technology platform,” Satz said. “I look forward to working closely with the board and the executive management team in order to help support GVC’s impressive growth trajectory, especially in light of the unprecedented opportunity presented by its strong position in the nascent U.S. sports betting market.”
Hoskin has been at GVC since 2005 and will take up the role of chief governance officer, overseeing GVC’s legal, regulatory, governance and social responsibility affairs. He is currently group director of legal, regulatory and secretariat and has been instrumental to the group’s growth and development in that time, overseeing its corporate governance, legal and regulatory requirements across more than 20 countries in five continents, while also supporting various M&A transactions. Prior to joining PartyGaming in 2005, Hoskin headed up the Investment Company Secretariat at Aberdeen Asset Management. He is a chartered company secretary and has a law degree from University College London.
“It has been an absolute pleasure to have witnessed GVC’s extraordinary growth story from an AIM-listed company to the successful and international FTSE 100 business that it is today,” said Hoskin. “I am honored to be joining what is an outstandingly strong Board and am delighted that the importance of Governance is being recognized in this way.”
