The company was formed to acquire the business interests of
the Rank Organisation, which itself was formed out of the business interests of its founder,
J. Arthur Rank. Until the start of the 21st century, the group still had a tremendous amount of leisure holdings; however, as the decade progressed it divested these interests, beginning with
Pinewood Studios and the
Odeon cinema chain. It also shed its engineering interests, such as its share in
Rank Xerox, selling Rank Leisure Machine Services to Gamestec. It sold its holiday and recreation facilities: Oasis Forest Holiday Villages was sold to
Center Parcs UK, and all its
Butlins, Warner and
Haven Holidays facilities were all sold to
Bourne Leisure. The company then sold off its nightclub division, Rank Entertainment, as well as its interest in
Universal Orlando Resort, and disposed of the Rank film library to
Carlton Communications, to which it had recently also sold the Rank Screen Advertising Film Division, which was latterly known as Cinema Media (now Digital Cinema Media). In December 2005, Rank sold
Deluxe Film (formerly Rank Film Laboratories) for £430 million, effectively ending its 60-year association with the film and cinema business. This meant Rank Leisure had become focused on gambling operations, with its remaining business interests concentrating on Grosvenor and G Casinos, Top Rank and Mecca Bingo, and online gambling through Rank Interactive, after the company acquired the Blue Square betting business in 2003. Finally leaving all non-gambling leisure behind, in December 2006, Rank sold the
Hard Rock business, excluding the London casino venue which was rebranded to G Casinos, to the
Seminole Tribe of Florida for US$965 million. In May 2012, Rank agreed to purchase 23 casinos from
Gala Coral for £205 million. After the
Competition Commission ruled that the deal would only go ahead if four venues were excluded, in March 2013 Rank agreed to purchase 19 casinos from Gala Coral for £179 million, making Rank the UK's largest casino operator. In April 2013, the group sold its Blue Square interactive gambling business, launched in 1999, to
Betfair. In January 2017, Rank Group and Mecca Bingo announced the renewal of their contract, which guarantees the use of
Playtech's Virtue Fusion platform at the bingo site for another 10 years. ==Operations==