GVC Holdings has announced the possible closure of 900 of its high street shops.

The company previously estimated that 1,000 shops would be affected. However, the decision is still expected to hit up to 5,000 jobs and impact revenue by £120m. 

William Hill announced similar plans last week, with 700 stores at risk of closing over the next two years. Both companies cited the FOBT stake cut bought in April 2019 as a major contributor to the closures. 

A statement from GVC said: “We now expect up to 900 shops to be at risk of closure, affecting up to 5,000 roles, over the next two years as a result of the reduction in maximum stakes on FOBTs to £2 that came into force on 1st April, and there are a number of shops that have been identified for closure as part of this process.

“This is not a decision we are taking lightly and we will be working hard to minimise the number of redundancies through redeployment within the business, whilst offering redundancy terms enhanced beyond the statutory requirement.”