Long-standing Leicester betting company Mark Jarvis Bookmakers has a new owner and is to be rebranded. JenningsBet said a “considerable” amount of money would be invested in the company, which was founded in the city in 1963.
Mark Jarvis, which had its head office in High Street, was the largest independent bookmaker in the Midlands and South Yorkshire with 40 branches. Greg Knight, the owner of JenningsBet, said his company would be pumping a “multi-million pound investment” into the branches.
However, the future of the 17 staff at the head office is uncertain. Employees who work there are in consultation, Mr Knight told LeicestershireLive.
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Mr Knight said all Mark Jarvis branches would be rebranded as JenningsBet, and that the head office would remain in Leicester for the “immediate future”, although he said it would ultimately be “integrated” into his company’s base in London and the future of its employees was currently “under review”.
Mr Knight told LeicestershireLive: “I am happy to say we are an expanding business. None of the branches will be closed down that we are purchasing. We are hoping to grow the business locally. They [the branches] will be rebranded as Jennings Bets. I guess the message is that there is going to be considerable investment in the branches, multi-million pound investment over the 40 branches.”
He said that Mark Jarvis had been a “well run company with a long history”. “Strategically it works for us location wise and they have done a good job with the business,” he said. “It made for an attractive acquisition.”
Mr Knight said he could not disclose how much the takeover had cost.
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