2015 Gambling Industry Appointments
INDUSTRY APPOINTMENTS AND MOVEMENTS
NYX Gaming Group appointed Leon Thomas as managing director of US operations.
Aussie social sports betting group Favourit employed Sportingbet veteran Gary Harris as chief executive officer.
Online poker firm PKR named Chris Welch as chief executive officer, Mike Ellis as chief technical officer and Tony Browne chief financial officer.
Former bwin.party finance executive Steven Prowse was appointed to lead Chinese lottery provider DJI Holdings’ finance division on an initial six month contract succeeding outgoing chief financial officer Rodney Davis.
Ian Bull, Ladbrokes chief financial officer, opted to leave the company in anticipation of the merger between Coral and Ladbrokes. Paul Bowtell, Coral's chief financial officer, will become Finance Director of the combined business.
The company also appointed David Martin and Sly Bailey as members to its Board Committees along with the appointment of former William Hill Plc marketing manager Kristof Fahy as chief marketing officer.
In a later announcement Andrew Bagguley, managing director of Ladbrokes operations, left the company after a short six-month stint and was replaced by former Playtech executive Nick Zajdel. Richard Harkness, greyhound trading manager, resigned after 24-years with Ladbrokes along with David Burgin who later joined the BoyleSports management team.
Most recently former Coral founder and chief executive officer John Kelly was named Chairman of the Ladbrokes Board following the resignation of Peter Erskine.
Unibet promoted Daniel Eskola to chief product officer and appointed Frederik Kjell as its new gaming chief.
Mobile gambling and social networking group Imperus Technologies Corp. named James Lantier as chief executive officer and director.
Real-money HTML5 Developer Program and Marketplace Odobo appointed Mat Ingram to head up content strategy.
– Playtech appointed former Betfair group operations director Ian Chuter as strategic advisor.
– Ultraplay named Borislav Boris as chief executive officer.
– CashBet appointed investment banker Dan Edwards as vice president of Finance.
– Paddy Power’s retail managing director Christian Woolfenden resigned his post, Sarah Ellis Davies joined as marketing innovations director and Gav Thompson was appointed chief marketing officer.
In a separate announcement, Dave Hammond was named head of retail product and innovation having previously served as SVP of Inspired’s mobile product and team.
Sandro Di Michele moved into a public relations role at UK gambling and betting company Sky Bet having previously served as head of trading.
Gaming technology firm Grand Parade appointed industry veterans, former Ladbrokes head of e-gaming John O’Reilly and former Gala Coral IT director Martyn Miller, to its board.
– Harry Lang was appointed by Pinnacle Sports as marketing director.
– Amaya Inc. appointed vice president of strategy Rafi Ashkenazi as chief executive officer of subsidiary Rational Group.
– Quickspin appointed Paul Myatt as vice president sales based in Malta.
– GAN announced the appointment of former SHFL head of online gaming Michael Daly as executive vice president of systems for the North America market.
– Non-executive director Daniel Silvers stepped down from the bwin.party board following his decision to leave SpringOwl Asset Management LLC.
– Online poker company PKR made several key appointments including Stephan Clavel to head its CRM team, Chris Welch as chief executive officer, Krishna Brennan as head of payments, Barbara Polignano as head of VIP casino and Alexandra Mihalu as head of affiliates.
Executive vice president, corporate secretary and chief financial operator of Scientific Games, Scott D. Schweinfurth, announced his retirement. The company promoted Michael Quartieri to Executive Vice President, Corporate Controller and Secretary of the group.
Robert Sadler, former head of bingo for William Hill, was appointed by Rank Interactive as Mecca bingo operations manager.
US mobile technology firm JOINGO appointed Kirk Olson as director of sales and promoted James Poole, who joined the company last year as director of gaming, to vice president of gaming products.
Lottery outcome betting firm Lottoland strengthened its senior management team with the appointment of former 888 vice president of risk management and regulatory operations Lucky Multani in the role of chief operating officer.
William Hill Plc was back in the news in January 2016 with the reported resignation of Andrew Lee, head of online operations. Lee’s departure followed that of a number of other high-profile resignations such as Finance Director Neil Cooper, who left last year to join Barratt Developments and Kristof Fahy, the chief marketing officer who joined rival Ladbrokes. Unconfirmed reports now indicate chief technology officer Finbarr Joy tendered his resignation in recent days.
Crispin Nieboer will take over temporarily as head of online following Lee’s departure later this year and Kevin O'Connor, former chief information officer at S&P Capital is joining William Hill as group chief information officer. Mecca Bingo’s former head of bingo Adam French was appointed as senior bingo operations manager.
Irina Cornides was named chief revenue officer at Intertain Bahamas having previously served as managing director of Mandalay Media for around 18 months.
Shay Segev, former Playtech chief operating officer moved from his chief strategy officer role at GVC Holdings plc’s into the newly created role of chief operating officer.
– Cherry appointed Jonas Wåhlander chief executive officer for its online gaming division to support further growth and profitability.
– Canadian platform provider Contagious Gaming named Craig Loverock as its new chief financial officer and corporate secretary succeeding Adam Knjec.
– Executive director of the Alderney Gambling Control Commission, André Wilsenach, will leave the AGCC at the end of January 2016 to take up the role of executive director of the new International Center for Gaming Regulation at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He is succeeded by Jorn Starck, former director of regulatory operations at the AGCC,
– Sky Betting and Gaming announced the appointment of Giovanna D’Esposito to head up its Italian operations as managing director of Sky Bet Italia.
– Sportech plc promoted Mickey Kalifa to group chief financial officer. He will officially take up the reins beginning of March when incumbent Cliff Baty moves on to serve as chief financial officer of professional English football club Manchester United FC.
– The Unibet Group promoted Albin de Beauregard, serving as head of the company's internal audit department, to the position of chief financial officer succeeding Graham Stretch, effective end of March 2016.
– Online gambling software developer and provider Playtech plc announced the appointment to its board of directors of John Jackson, with effect January 1, 2016. He will sit on the Board's Remuneration Committee; Risk and Compliance Committee; Audit Committee; and Nominations Committee. Non-executive Deputy chairman, Hilary Stewart-Jones, resigned effective end December to pursue other business interests.
After ten years with Aussie gambling group Tabcorp as it’s regulatory and compliance executive, Kerry Willcock is leaving the company following accusations by the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre earlier this year that the company had committed over a hundred breaches of money laundering laws.
David Gosen, chief executive officer of mobile gaming provider Nektan resigned tin January 2016. Executive chairman Gary Shaw will take over as interim chief executive officer until a replacement is appointed. In addition, Jim Wilkinson, an independent non-executive director of the company, will become non-executive chairman of the company. He is currently the chief financial officer for Oxford Sciences Innovation plc, and was at one time chief financial officer of Sportingbet.
Alistair Boston-Smith joined software developer Bede Gaming in the role of business development director.
Cashbet, a California-based mobile-first real-money gaming platform provider and turnkey operator, appointed London-based commercial director, David da Silva as part of its international expansion plans.
