Smarkets recruits Entain’s Matthew Shaddick as politics product chief

Smarkets has moved to strengthen its politics betting segment with the hire of Ladbrokes veteran Matthew Shaddick, EGR can reveal.  Shaddick, who first joined Ladbrokes in 2002 as a sportsbook executive, is widely considered to be the industry’s expert voice on political betting markets.  He held the head of politics betting position at Ladbrokes, and then Entain, since 2008.   The role was made his sole responsibility in 2014 as political betting gathered momentum due to the UK’s referendum on Brexit and the election of Donald Trump as US President.  

Shaddick will now take up the head of political markets title at Smarkets and will lead the operator’s politics products, working alongside Smarkets political analyst Patrick Flynn.  He replaces Sarbjit Bakhshi, who left the business in February 2021 after three years in the role.   Shaddick started in the operator’s London office on 21 June and will report into the C-level executive team spearheaded by Smarkets CEO Jason Trost.   Political betting is a passion of Trost’s and it has become a key area of differentiation for the operator, which intends to position itself as a reliable predictor of real-world elections and events.   Last week, for example, the exchange-led firm calculated there was a 68% chance that Health Secretary Matt Hancock would be the next cabinet member to leave office after The Sun exposed details of his affair with lobbyist Gina Coladangelo.  At the time, Smarkets political analyst Flynn said: “These kinds of scandals are always difficult to predict, but the market wisdom appears to think the Health Secretary is likely to be given his marching orders sooner rather than later.”  Hancock resigned on Saturday 26 June.   https://twitter.com/smarkets/status/1408841496581791751?s=20