Rank Group CEO John O’Reilly Steps Down: What is His Legacy?

Rank Group’s confirmation that chief executive John O’Reilly will step down in 2026 brings to a close one of the most consequential leadership tenures in the modern history of UK bingo.

Before joining Rank in 2018, he held senior roles at Ladbrokes, served as managing director of Coral Interactive within the Gala Coral Group, and was a non-executive director and chairman of the transformation oversight committee at William Hill.

O’Reilly did not preside over a period of gentle evolution. Instead, his time at the top was defined by contraction, consolidation, and crisis management, particularly within Mecca Bingo. While Rank today is more profitable and financially disciplined than when he arrived, it is also a markedly smaller retail bingo operator.

The central question for the industry is not whether O’Reilly improved Rank’s financial position, but whether that improvement came at a longer-term cost to the UK’s top bingo brand.

Where Rank and Mecca Bingo Stood in 2018

When O’Reilly took charge, Mecca Bingo operated around 80 clubs across the UK. While footfall was already under pressure from changing leisure habits and digital competition, the estate still represented the backbone of Rank’s community-facing business.

Rank generated approximately £730 million in net gaming revenue at the time, with underlying operating profit estimated at around £40–45 million. The challenge was clear: a large, asset-heavy estate delivering increasingly thin margins.

By the 2024/25 financial year, Rank’s underlying net gaming revenue had risen to approximately £795 million, despite the smaller bingo estate. Mecca Bingo revenues remained under pressure compared with other divisions, but like-for-like performance improved in later years as venues reopened and stabilised after COVID.

The growth over the period was driven primarily by Grosvenor Casinos and Rank Interactive, while Mecca’s contribution became leaner but more resilient.

O’Reilly inherited a UK bingo and casino business that needed reform, but few anticipated the scale of physical retrenchment that would follow.

COVID-19 as Catalyst, Not Cause

The pandemic fundamentally reshaped Mecca Bingo’s trajectory, but it did not create the underlying pressures. COVID-19 accelerated decisions that were already looming.

Extended closures, rising reopening costs, and permanently altered customer behaviour exposed which clubs were viable and which were not. Under O’Reilly, Rank chose to act decisively, closing around 30 Mecca Bingo venues between 2019 and 2024.

Speaking to investors previously, O’Reilly argued that the group needed to become “leaner, more resilient and more disciplined in how we allocate capital,” adding that the focus had to be on “long-term sustainability rather than short-term scale.”

For many in the bingo sector, those words became synonymous with a strategy that favoured yield over reach.

By the Numbers: A Business Reshaped

The numerical comparison between the start and end of O’Reilly’s tenure is stark.

In simple terms:

• Mecca Bingo clubs reduced from roughly 80 to around 50

• Rank net gaming revenue increased from approximately £730m to around £795m

• Underlying operating profit rose from roughly £42m to around £64m

• Footfall declined, but spend per customer increased

Bottom line: Rank is undeniably more profitable, but Mecca Bingo is serving fewer communities, with fewer doors open and fewer customers walking through them.

Executive View: “Quality Over Quantity”

Rank’s board has been unequivocal in its support of O’Reilly’s approach. In announcing his retirement, the company praised his leadership through “an exceptionally challenging period” and said he leaves the group “financially stronger and strategically clearer.”

O’Reilly himself has consistently defended the strategy. In results briefings, he has emphasised “quality of earnings over volume” and argued that remaining Mecca clubs are better aligned with modern customer expectations.

He has also pointed to digital growth and cross-channel engagement as evidence that bingo participation has not disappeared, but evolved.

The Counterargument: Has Bingo Been Streamlined Too Far?

Critics within the industry argue that while Rank may have stabilised its balance sheet, it has weakened Mecca Bingo’s cultural and geographic reach.

Bingo is not a pure yield-driven product. It relies on habit, accessibility, and community presence. Once a club closes, that ecosystem rarely re-forms elsewhere. From this perspective, estate contraction risks creating a self-fulfilling decline in participation.

So, Was John O’Reilly’s Tenure a Success?

Financially, the answer is difficult to dispute. Rank is more profitable, more focused, and arguably more resilient than it was in 2018.

Strategically, the answer is more nuanced. O’Reilly stabilised Rank, but he did so by accepting that Mecca Bingo would be smaller, more selective, and less ubiquitous.

Whether that trade-off proves wise will be judged not by profits alone, but by whether the remaining clubs can sustain participation, relevance and political support in the years ahead.

John O’Reilly leaves Rank stronger on paper. The open question is whether UK retail bingo, with the loss of so many bingo clubs, emerges stronger in practice. As one industry analyst said: “John O’Reilly didn’t save every club, but he may have saved the group.”