Ladbrokes owner faces shareholder revolt over £19.1m payout to boss

Ladbrokes was bought last year for £3.2bn by GVC, based in the Isle of Man. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

The boss of Britain’s biggest gambling company, the Ladbrokes owner GVC, was paid £19.1m in 2018, putting the company at risk of a fresh clash with shareholders.

The Isle of Man-based betting firm suffered a stinging shareholder revolt last year when 44% of investors voted against pay schemes that awarded its top two executives, including the chief executive, Kenny Alexander, deals worth a combined £67m.

Alexander clashed with investors again this year after he sold £13.7m of shares in GVC at a discount, a decision that caused the company’s share price to fall by as much as 18% – and which he later admitted had been a bad idea.

He could face yet another row over his remuneration after GVC’s annual report revealed that he was paid £19.1m last year thanks to a “legacy award” linked to the company’s takeover of the online gaming firm bwin.party in 2015.

The GVC chair, Lee Feldman, also enjoyed a legacy award linked to the deal, boosting his overall pay package to £8.5m.

It was the second year running that both men’s pay was inflated by the awards; their deals were worth £18.3m and £8.9m respectively in 2017.

GVC, which bought Ladbrokes in a £3.2bn deal last year, appeared to acknowledge that the payouts could prove controversial in comments attached to its remuneration report.

It said the company’s remuneration committee “recognises that the ‘single figures’ of total remuneration shown for the chairman and CEO are substantial. These primarily relate to legacy awards made under the 2015 LTIP [long-term incentive plan] at the time of the acquisition of bwin.party, coupled with our strong share price performance over the vesting period.

“Our new policy framework will result in significantly lower levels of total remuneration from 2019 onwards.”

At last year’s annual meeting in Gibraltar, 44% of shareholder who voted opposed the company’s pay structure, while 45% rebelled the year before that.

The 2018 revolt forced the non-executive director Peter Isola to step down from the remuneration committee, which sets pay.