Rank Group has announced that John O’Reilly will step down from his position as CEO of the business before the end of January.
O’Reilly will officially retire from the role on 29 January, Rank confirmed on Tuesday. He will continue to support the business until the end of the current 2025-26 financial year.
Chief Financial Officer Richard Harris will become interim CEO while Rank seeks to appoint a permanent replacement. Harris has been an executive director of Rank’s board since joining the business as CFO in May 2022.
O’Reilly took on the position of CEO in May 2018 after a spell as a non-executive director at William Hill. Prior to this, he was managing director of GVC’s Coral Interactive within the Gala Coral Group.
Prior to that O’Reilly spent almost 20 years as an executive director at Ladbrokes, from 1992 through to 2011. During this time, Ladbrokes merged with Gala Coral to create Ladbrokes Coral Group, which was later acquired by GVC, now Entain.
O’Reilly steadied the ship through Covid and UK reforms
Key highlights from his time as Rank CEO included the acquisition of Stride Gaming just several months after he joined the business. O’Reilly also led the business through Covid-19 and oversaw its return to profit following the pandemic.
More recently he led the operator through some land-based gambling reforms which have enabled the Grosvenor business to increase its gaming machine suite and provide sport betting terminals within its casinos, for the first time.
O’Reilly also guided the company through the UK gambling review and subsequent white paper. New measures that emerged from that review had cost the operator’s digital arm around £1 million between April and June 2025.
He was extremely critical of the pending gambling tax hike in UK earlier in the year, before it was confirmed by the Chancellor in November.
“On behalf of the board and everyone at Rank, I would like to express my sincere thanks to John for his leadership of and passion for Rank,” new Rank Chairman John Ott said of O’Reilly’s exit. “His extensive gambling industry knowledge and experience, as well as deep operational skills have combined to ensure that Rank is well positioned to build on the direction he established.
“In addition, he has contributed significantly to the betting and gaming industry for decades. We wish him all the very best.”
Harris backed to lead Rank Group
O’Reilly’s temporary replacement, Harris, will officially become interim CEO on 30 January. Prior to joining Rank in 2022, Harris was CFO at Foxtons Group and previously held roles with Laird and Marks and Spencer.
“As interim CEO, the board are confident Richard will provide both important continuity and the strategic leadership required to drive the performance of the business and maximise shareholder returns,” Ott said. “The board and I look forward to continuing to working closely with him to realise those ambitions.”
O’Reilly also backed his temporary replacement to lead Rank. He said: “I am pleased Richard will take Rank to the next stage of what I am sure is a bright future. I wish the group every success.
“It has been a privilege to lead Rank for the past seven and a half years. I’m proud of all that we have accomplished in that time.”
Busy start to 2025-26 for Rank
In November, John Ott, a former senior advisory partner at advisory Bain & Company, was announced as Rank’s new chairman, taking over from Alex Thursby, whose departure was announced in September.
A few weeks later, Rank was hit with the news that its Spanish operations had experienced fraud. In total, €7.1 million (£6.2 million) was reported in payment fraud, with Rank having raised this with Spanish law enforcement and launched an internal investigation.
In its Q1 earnings released in October, Rank reported a 9% year-on-year increase in revenue. This covered the first quarter of its 2025-26 financial year. Net gaming revenue for the period, covering the three months to 30 September, topped £210.2 million.
Highlights included a 31% spike in Grosvenor digital revenue and a 9% rise within its Mecca online segment. In Spain, however, revenue slipped 1% due to previously reported platform capacity issues.
CFO Richard Harris will become interim CEO while Rank seeks to appoint a permanent replacement.