888 Holdings

888 Holdings plc is a company which operates several high-profile gambling websites. It was founded in 1997. It has an operating subsidiary, Cassava Enterprises, which is incorporated and operates under the laws of Gibraltar. Brothers Avi and Aaron Shaked owned approximately fifty percent of the parent-company through family trusts. Another pair of brothers, Shay and Ron Ben-Yitzhak, control approximately eleven percent through a family trust. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

History

The business was founded by Israeli entrepreneurs Avi and Aaron Shaked and Shay and Ron Ben-Yitzhak in May 1997 as Virtual Holdings Limited. Casino-on-Net was launched at that time and an administrative centre was established in Antigua. In 2002 Reef Club Casino and Pacific Poker were launched. In 2003 its administrative center was moved to Gibraltar. It was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2005. Talk of listing began in mid-2005, as other private online gambling companies began to make the move to public ownership, with HSBC advising 888 on the IPO, which reached an estimated initial valuation £550 to £650 million. The final valuation upon flotation was £590 million. 888 Holdings owned several subsidiaries and brands, which it began to bring under the singular "888" brand name in early 2006.