Gambling Industry Appointments for Q2 2012
Monday June 25, 2012 : INDUSTRY APPOINTMENTS AND MOVEMENTS
WorldSpreads:
Resignation of chief financial officer, Niall O’Kelly (prior to financial irregularities coming to light)
Resignation of chief executive, Conor Foley
Appointment of Lindsay McNeile as executive chairman of both WorldSpreads and WorldSpreads Ltd.
Appointment of Dominic Bacon to the board (general counsel and group head of compliance).
Swedish gaming monopoly Svenska Spel appointed Peter Zäll to the position of performance area manager for Sports and Lotteries, effective April 3, 2012.
Webis Holdings’ Finance Director Damon Waddington resigned his position effective April 20, 2012.
Glyn Powditch was appointed by Leeds-based Sky Gaming and Betting to the position Director of Gaming responsible for the Sky Vegas, Sky Poker and Sky Bingo brands.
Kenilworth Systems Corp. appointed veteran casino executive George Hedrick to the management team as Executive Managing Director of Kenilworth subsidiary KenSysCo Gaming, Inc.
LVS, sports book software provider owned by French gambling giant La Française des Jeux, appointed former Ladbrokes IT exec Nick Dutton to the new role of Programme Director.
American horse racing operator Churchill Downs Inc’s executive vice president for technology initiatives and the president of its online wagering arm Twin Spires.com, Rohit Thukral, resigned.
Brian Mattingley appointed permanent chief executive officer of 888 Holdings.
Sports betting and lottery software supplier Betgenius Limited employed the services of Max Wright to its commercial team in the role of Business Development Manager.
35-year Ladbrokes veteran and head of the betting company's international business development affairs, Kevin Hopgood resigned and was replaced by South African-born Adam Greenblatt, a graduate of the University of Cape Town and Ladbroke's director for corporate and strategic development.
Ladbrokes suspended and launched a probe into its Director of Trading Jon Thompson, who was subsequently dismissed.
UK land and online gambling company Rank Group plc announced the appointment of the Rt. Hon. Sir Richard Needham (Earl of Kilmorey) to the board as an independent non-executive director with effect from 1 May 2012.
Following Amaya Gaming's takeover – Cryptologic’s interim chief executive officer David Gavagan resigned and was replaced by Amaya chief executive officer David Baazov. Cryptologic chief financial officer and chief operating officer Huw Spiers also resigned and was replaced by Amaya chief financial officer Daniel Sebag.
On the board of directors, Simon Creedy Smith and James Wallace are out, whilst Thomas Byrne and Gavagan will stay on as non-executive directors.
Baazov was appointed an executive director, along with Divyesh Gadhia – who joined as a non-executive director.
French operator Pari Mutuel Urbain reappointed Philippe Germond to continue in the position of chief executive officer for an additional four year term.
Software development and online gambling operator, B3W Group appointed Aj Thompson to the position Director of Strategy.
Betfair appointed Craig Mucklow (38) as Director of Trading in charge of a Dublin-based trading team responsible for managing all of Betfair's risk products, including its new next generation sports product.
Live Data supplier SIS announced various appointments that included that of Brent Dolan, previously Commercial Director, becoming Director of Operations for the whole of the betting division of SIS.
Jack Davison, who joined SIS last year as Director of Sports Data, was made Commercial Director, with responsibility for the retail and online sectors.
James Hanlon, who joined SIS three years ago from Stan James, was made Head of Product Development, reporting to Production Director Jason Barker.
George Irvine, who previously held the position of managing director of Production and Data at SIS, was appointed to oversee the entire betting division following the departure of Phillip Siers. Siers moved to Betfred earlier this year to oversee the new Tote division.
Online gambling firm 32Red's IT Director Graham Campbell stepped down from the Board with immediate effect but will remain with the Company on a consultancy basis.
Online casino Mr Green appointed Ella Hall as Chief Marketing Officer. Prior to joining Mr Green, Hall was the head of marketing at the online bingo site Jackpot Joy.
Bodog UK appointed Sathish Seshadri as Software Development Director.
Aristocrat Leisure Limited appointed Atul Bali to succeed Nick Khin as president of Aristocrat Americas.
Tipp24SE's future Lotto24 AG appointed Petra von Strombeck (42) and Magnus von Zitzewitz (44) to the executive board of the new company.
Following the Media Corp debacle and the closure of Purple Lounge, Intabet management team members Phil Jackson and Adam Fraser-Harris joined the Media Corp board as non-executive chairman and chief executive officer respectively, while Media Corp Chairman Justin Drummond and interim chief executive officer Sara Vincent resigned.
Irish bookmaker Paddy Power appointed Non-executive director, Cormac McCarthy (49) as chief financial officer and an executive director.
Jack Massey (44), finance director of Paddy Power since 2006, was appointed director of finance & as company secretary.
David Johnston (40), Company Secretary and General Counsel since 2007, will focus exclusively on leading an enlarged legal and compliance function as Group General Counsel.
In a later announcement Paddy Power appointed William Reeve (39) to Head of Operations overseeing Technology, Risk & Trading, HR and Corporate Strategy and Fin Goulding (51) as Chief Information Officer responsible for leading the technology functions for the Paddy Power's business channels in the UK, Ireland and Italy.
Fortuna Entertainment Group appointed Wilf Walsh as chairman of the management board, replacing Jiří Bunda who left the company at the end of last year
Sportingbet appointed Rory Macnamara, an existing non-executive director of the company and chairman of its Audit Committee, as the new Senior Independent non-executive director of the group replacing Brian Harris who will remain on the board as a non-executive director.
UK live racing and sports video and data provider Satellite Information Services Ltd (SIS) appointed Gary Smith as chief operating officer and as a member of the board effective July 1, 2012.
888 Holdings erstwhile chief executive officer and non-executive director, Gigi Levy, stepped down from the board just over a year since he resigned as the group's chief executive.
Online gambling software developer Playtech plc announced the appointment of Andrew Thomas as a non-executive director and future chairman of the group's audit committee.
