 |
The French media are reporting that Mangas Gaming, which owns important European Internet gambling operations such as Betclick, Bet-at-Home and Expekt has appointed Nicolas Béraud as chief operating officer of the group, and Juliette de la Noue as head of corporate and social responsibility.
Mangas Gaming is owned by a well-heeled investment fund run by the highly respected former chief of Endemol, Stephane Courbit, who sold the [Endemol] TV production company to Spain's Telefonica in 2006, accruing around Euro 450 million on the deal. According to the French media, Mangas is strongly cashed and able to deploy serious capital by the business-savvy Courbit.
Beraud was previously CEO of Mangas Gaming subsidiary Betclick, a successful sports betting enterprise that was launched in 2005 by Béraud and is licensed in Malta and the UK.
Béraud's responsibilities will be focused on building Mangas Gaming into one of Europe’s top gambling groups, and he will report to Isabelle Parize, who recently completed the acquisition of Expekt and Bet-at-home (see previous InfoPowa reports).
Béraud hinted at the group's future direction when he said this week: “We are very strong on bookmaking and that is our key expertise. Going into a highly competitive sector like [online] poker would require a re-focus of much of the staff and a level of investment that we are not prepared to contemplate at the moment.”
The new COO said that each of the three Mangas brands would remain autonomous in their core markets.
