Review of the Year: People Moves
eGR looks at the 10 biggest talking points of 2011.
Betfair
This year saw a huge amount of movement at Betfair, with a number of high-profile arrivals and departures. Long-serving and often founding senior executives including CEO David Yu, chairman Ed Wray, and chief commercial officer Niall Wass were among those to announce their exits from the betting exchange. The trio followed the likes of director of public affairs Tim Philips; head of mobile Charlie Palmer; chief products and services officer Mathias Entenmann and LMAX CEO Robin Osmond, who all left over the course of the year.
The company replaced them with a number of senior appointments. Philips was replaced by Microsoft’s Matt Lambert, while Raj Vemulapalli joined from Yahoo! as vice president of mobile engineering, heading up the company’s centre of mobile excellence in San Francisco. Ed Wray will be replaced as chairman by ex Railtrack chief executive Gerald Corbett, while Paddy Power’s highly-rated COO Breon Corcoran will take over as CEO of the business in August next year.
These replacements have been joined by a host of experienced professionals in newly-created roles. Former William Hill COOs Ian Chuter and Peter Marcus joined as global operations director and UK managing director respectively, Matt Robinson left bwin.party to become emerging markets director, while Nick Hagen was poached from GTECH G2 to take up the role of sports operations director.
Other high-profile departures
Several companies also saw long-serving CEOs step down. 888’s Gigi Levy left after five years, but not without controversy after he was offered a £3.9m golden handshake amid falling revenues and the write off of social games business Mytopia. Senior independent director Brian Mattingley has since taken charge of the business in the interim overseeing a revival of the operator and posting a 120% increase in B2C poker revenues in Q3 2011, while also helping it to a 42% year-on-year increase in revenues.
Meanwhile Betsson, one of the highest risers in this year’s Power 50 rankings, appointed Magnus Silfverberg as group CEO to replace Pontus Lindwall, who became chairman after more than 13 years in the top job.
The other major CEO departure, or rather non-departure, occurred at Rank Group where Ian Burke and finance director Paddy Gallagher stood down in protest at the proposed takeover by Guoco Group”¦ only for Burke to return to his role five days later. Gallagher, however, was replaced by Clive Jennings in July.
One of the highest-profile hires of the year took place at Gala Coral, with eGR exclusively breaking the news that former HBOS chief executive Andy Hornby had been appointed managing director of Coral. Ex head of egaming at Ladbrokes John O’Reilly also joined Coral Interactive reporting to Hornby as managing director as the company moves its online operations to Gibraltar. Former PartyGaming COO Per Widerström joined Gala as O’Reilly’s equivalent to lead its interactive division.
Restructuring
PokerStars restructured its senior management team with the arrival of three new executives. Former NetPlay COO Guy Templer became the operator’s director of business development, having the misfortune to join the Isle of Man licensed operator three days after Black Friday. Eric Hollreiser left his role as senior vice-president at Walt Disney Company to become Stars’ first head of corporate communications, while Alex Payne joined as CMO after more than 10 years at Microsoft, another of Hollreiser’s former employers.
Paddy Power also underwent a major restructure following Breon Corcoran’s departure creating one of the youngest executive boards in gaming. Peter O’Donovan was promoted from head of online to managing director, Paddy Power online & technology and Christopher Coyne was promoted from head of egaming to head of Paddypower.com, effectively cancelling out the COO role. Eamon Toland was also promoted, leaving his role as head of telephone betting to become president of Paddy Power North America, overseeing the Nevada licence application process and the development of Paddy’s US operations that remain under wraps.
After six years with Betclic, and three as CEO of Betclic Everest Group, Nicolas Beraud suddenly stepped down in September. He was replaced by Ignacio Martos, formerly CEO of travel company Opodo. Martos then initiated a restructure of the company’s Betclic and Expekt operations, which in turn saw Betclic Expekt CEO Thomas Winter leave after three years. Winter will be replaced by three regional directors, each taking responsibility for a separate region of Betclic Expekt’s operations. Marc Guigo will head up the French, Swiss and Belgian markets; Ricardo Domingues will be take charge of Southern Europe, and Tomasz Mazur has been promoted to head of Northern and Eastern Europe.
Other moves
NetEnt and Mfuse both saw their long-serving chief executives move on, with Jonas Ãhman and Marcus Wareham departing after five and a half and 10 years respectively.
Centrebet’s head of marketing and gaming Luke Brill has also left after four and a half years with the Australian company, looking for a new challenge (and perhaps a new greyhound “ remember Centrepet anyone?) following its acquisition by Sportingbet in August.
The key people moves from 2011:
Betclic Expekt CEO to leave role
Beraud steps down as Betclic Everest CEO
Breon Corcoran to become Betfair CEO in August 2012
Betfair CEO to leave after six years
Lindwall to be named Betsson chairman
Rank directors in shock resignation
O’Reilly joins Coral as interactive MD
Former HBOS CEO appointed MD of Coral
Centrebet head of marketing leaves for new challenge