Shay Segev: GVC most exciting group in industry
Incoming COO says it was a tough decision to leave Gala Coral but sees unlimited opportunities at an enlarged GVC
GVC Holdings COO designate Shay Segev (pictured) has described his new employer as the “most exciting group” in the online gambling industry and said the firm would aim to complete the bwin.party integration within a year.
Former Playtech COO Segev, who is currently chief strategy officer at Gala Coral, will join GVC on 1 March with a remit to lead the integration process following GVC’s £1.2bn takeover of bwin.party, which is expected to complete in February.
And speaking to eGaming Review following his appointment, Segev spoke of the dilemma faced when approached by GVC, primarily due to the fact he had only joined Gala Coral in July.
“I definitely did not plan it [my time at Gala Coral] to be this short as I had planned to stay and continue with what we are doing,” Segev said. “But I decided to move to GVC – it was not an easy decision.”
Segev will continue to work with Gala Coral on omni-channel projects up until February but already has one eye on the job ahead at GVC come the spring.
“My focus in the first 12 months will be to put in place the building blocks for the enlarged group for the future, meaning one organisation, one platform, superior product, the right customer journeys, marketing, removing duplications and so on to ensure everything is aligned so we can move forward,” Segev said.
“This means a lot of cost savings during the first 12 months. Not for cost savings sake but from a simplicity perspective and I believe we will see revenues up from a simplified proposition and with some key differentiators which we will create,” he added.
GVC has set out plans to realise 125m of cost synergies per annum, the bulk of which Segev said would come from the removal of sportsbook duplications as GVC’s Sportingbet migrates to the bwin platform.
He said the firm would try to complete the integration process within 12 months of deal completion and pointed to GVC’s experience with Sportingbet and his time handling integrations during his period at Playtech as reasons to be optimistic about a reasonably quick and pain-free turnaround.
And once the integration process has been completed, Segev said the firm would “definitely” look to do more deals, while new markets would also be on the agenda.
“I think M&A is another way to grow and create more synergies,” he said. “Is there anything concrete at the moment? I don’t know. But this will be something that will be required when we complete the GVC/bwin platform. I think it will be very obvious that there will be a lot of space for growth through acquisitions,” he added.