Leading racehorse owner Kenny Alexander is suing the Gambling Commission with a claim that the industry regulator misused his private information during a failed attempt to take over leadership of gambling company 888.

Alexander, the one-time chief executive of GVC Holdings, subsequently renamed Entain, has taken the action along with his former chair at GVC, Lee Feldman. They claim they have both “suffered damage, distress and embarrassment, as well as the loss of standing, as a result of the misuse of their private information and/or the breaches of confidence” by the Gambling Commission.

The origins of the dispute go back to the summer of 2023 when Alexander and Feldman were among a group of gambling industry heavyweights who had built a stake in William Hill’s parent company 888 – now known as Evoke – through a vehicle called FS Gaming Investments.