Gaming VC hires PartyGaming, Sportingbet talent for Euro push

GAMING VC HAS hired former PartyGaming marketing chief Jon Salmon and former Sportingbet head of sportsbook Jim Humberstone to drive a €7m new push on casino and sports betting respectively.

Salmon (pictured), who is also the former managing director of European online casino and poker marketing agency Ads Dot Com, which boasted clients including InterCasino, will be charged with heading an expansion of the operator’s CasinoClub product outside its core German market. He will also be responsible for additional marketing spend to maintain Gaming VC’s existing German business.

Salmon joined PartyGaming as chief marketing officer in September 2008 and began there the next the month, reporting directly to chief executive Jim Ryan, but left PartyGaming in July 2009 after less than a year at the company.

Humberstone, formerly head of sportsbook at Sportingbet, will be in charge of a newly launched sportsbook that will include new language versions aimed at southern Europe and elsewhere.

In total, the company expects to invest up to €7m during 2010 to build the new businesses, which are not expected to make a contribution to earnings until 2011.

Both initiatives reflect Gaming VC’s strategy of geographic diversification outside its core German market, which included its purchase of Brazilian operator Betboo, the EGR Lat Am Operator of the Year 2009, in July.

EGRmagazine.com is now Tweeting, Twitter name: ‘egamingreview’.