People news 05/04/2012
A round up of people news from the last week (30 March to 5 April 2012).
Pocket Kings hiring new staff
Full Tilt Poker’s software company advertises with Irish agency.
Pocket Kings, the Irish-based company which provided the software for Full Tilt Poker before the company lost its operating licences last year, is believed to be recruiting new staff.
It has posted 14 vacancies, the majority for customer service representatives, with recruitment portal jobs.ie, offering “2-3 month contract roles [which] may become permanent”.
This suggests the takeover of the company by Groupe Bernard Tapie, which eGaming Review sources have suggested is imminent, is drawing ever closer.
Applicants for the vacant roles are required to be multilingual, with roles for speakers of a variety of languages specified. These languages relate to a number of dot.com markets including Russia and Romania, while a call for Spanish speaking representatives follows GBT’s application for an egaming licence in Spain.
Hernandez Riera confirmed as Spanish regulator
Carlos Hernandez Riera has been appointed deputy general director for the Spanish gambling authority, replacing Juan Carlos Alfonso Rubio who resigned from the role last month, the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Finance has confirmed.
As exclusively revealed by eGaming Review on 20 March Hernandez Riera was on a shortlist of two state attorneys being considered for the position alongside Carlos Montes, who was thought to have met with Alfonso Rubio to discuss the role. However, Hernandez Riera had been widely tipped as the preferred choice and took up the position yesterday.
He is the third high-profile appointment to the Spanish regulatory body this year, after Enrique Alejo joined as general director in January, and Jaime Lorenzo was announced as deputy general director of gaming management, responsible for technical compliance, replacing Miguel Ordozgoiti who left alongside Alfonso Rubio.
Hopgood leaves Ladbrokes after 35 years
Ladbrokes’ international development director Kevin Hopgood is to leave the UK operator tomorrow after 35 years with the company, eGaming Review has learned.
The gaming veteran is said to be considering his options, including potentially starting his own consultancy business, while he completes a three month non-compete clause.
Hopgood is one of the last remaining long serving employees to leave the company since chief executive Richard Glynn’s arrival in May 2010. Since then a number of individuals in senior positions have been a casualty’s of new management changes including former egaming director John O’Reilly, now managing director of Coral Interactive, Ladbrokes former head of online Gary McIlraith, MD of egaming Ed Andrewes and former head of international and mobile Alex Kovach, who departed in March last year for a board position with UK lottery operator Camelot.
Hills PR director leaves after just three months
Richard Prescott has left William Hill after just three months in his role as director of PR for the operator and will not be replaced, eGaming Review has learned.
Prescott, who joined William Hill in January this year after spending more than 13 years with the Rugby Football Union (RFU), and was involved with the management team when England’s rugby side won the World Cup in 2003, left at the end of March after “the role did not suit what he was looking to do”, according to a spokesman for the company.
Prescott (pictured), who ran his own PR consultancy before joining William Hill, has returned to concentrating on his business. He also had spells as consumer PR manager for telecommunications company Mercury Communications and as group PR manager for hospitality company Whitbread.
Seven days in people news:
Judge delays Campos plea deal
John Campos, one of the payment processors indicted on Black Friday, has seen Judge Lewis Kaplan refuse to immediately accept his guilty plea.
Campos reached a plea deal to the US government on Tuesday, just two weeks before he and fellow defendant Chad Elie were due in a Manhattan court. Ex-banker Campos faces six charges including two counts of operating an illegal gambling business, and one allegation of money laundering conspiracy.
Crypto CEO steps down
David Gavagan has resigned as chief executive of CryptoLogic with the company poised to be taken over by Amaya Gaming.
A former chairman of the Toronto-listed company, Gavagan replaced Brian Hadfield as CEO in August 2010 but will now himself be succeeded by current Amaya chief David Baazov.
Former Minister for Northern Ireland joins Rank board
Rank Group has appointed Britain’s former Minister for Northern Ireland and Conservative MP Sir Richard Needham to its board as non-executive director with effect from 1 May this year.
Sir Richard (pictured), 70, had a distinguished career in parliament culminating in his time as Britain’s longest serving Minister in Northern Ireland from 1985 to 1992 and as Minister of Trade from 1992 to 1995. He left politics in 1997 to focus on the private sector and has been a director of a number of public and private companies including Biocompatibles International, The Heart Hospital and Dyson where he was a director for more than 16 years.
Channing named CEO of Black Belt
Black Belt Poker majority shareholder Neil Channing has been named as the new chief executive of the poker skin, eGaming Review can confirm.
Channing, who was one of the founders of the company in 2009, takes over from Warren Wooldridge, who is moving away from the operational side of poker and looking forward to this summer’s World Series.
Jay Tan has become the latest member of Team Bodog, the operator’s team of poker pros, joining Tatjana Pasalic. The announcement coincides with the launch of a Chinese-language client on the Bodog Poker Network, and Tan claimed that Bodog “shows a real understanding of [Asia]” through its product offering.
“The Bodog brand is all about having a good time and they are never afraid to take on the establishment and I like to think that’s me too. Bodog88 also seems to really understand the Asian market”¦poker is relatively new to Asia where Mahjong is still king and I hear Bodog88 will have that online very soon. I’ve never seen anybody else have Super 6 Bacarat online before either “ this is huge in the Macau casinos right now,” she explained.
Australian poker pro Roy ‘GodlikeRoy’ Bhasin has joined Team PokerStars. Formerly a keen video game player, Bhasin is regarded as a Pot Limit Omaha expert, coming second in a $2100 SCOOP PLO tournament in 2010. Commenting on his appointment, he said: “I feel incredibly humbled and honored to have been chosen to be a part of Team PokerStars Online. It has been a dream of mine for a while now, and to actually see it come true is an incredible feeling”
A Norwegian casino player has won a £3.3m jackpot on Net Entertainment‘s Mega Fortune slot, playing at Betsafe.com.