THE former chief executive of Party Gaming, the online poker group, is to take the helm at Esporta, the loss-making fitness-club chain.

Richard Segal, who made a reputed £30m from his two-year stint running the internet gaming company, is set to be unveiled as chairman of Esporta in the next few weeks.

Esporta is led by Glenn Timms, the chief executive. It is not clear whether Segal, who declined to comment, will take an executive or nonexecutive role.

He has plenty of experience of the leisure sector, having previously led a management buyout of Odeon cinemas. More recently, Segal was a partner in a vehicle set up by 3i, the venture-capital group, to invest in quoted companies. The business was recently bought out by its parent.

Esporta is controlled, in effect, by Société Générale, the French investment bank. It financed the £476m acquisition of the gym chain by property tycoon Simon Halabi in 2006, but that deal later unravelled.

Esporta’s two parent companies were placed in administration several months after the takeover, and subsequent to the chief executive and finance director leaving.

Despite its parent firms’ difficulties, the gym chain continues to trade normally, although recently filed accounts for the year to December 2007, the latest available, show the business made a pretax loss of £163m.

T h e l o s s e s i n c l u d e a number of writedowns and finance charges. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, and exceptional items, were £31.9m, although the 2008 accounts are expected to show an improvement.

Société Générale, which also declined to comment, had spent some time trying to sell the business but it was unable to agree an acceptable price with potential buyers.

Rival operator David Lloyd Leisure had been strongly rumoured to be interested. The bank is said to be working on a debt-for-equity swap of the business.

Industry sources suggest that the fitness industry is coping better with the recession than might have been expected. They say consumers seem to be going to the gym more often to get value for their subscription rather than cancelling their memberships.

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