People news 14 August 2014
The latest people news from the egaming industry in the last seven days (1 August to 7 August 2014)
Gala rejigs management team after casino director exit
Kasper Trier-Poulsen leaves Gala Interactive with firm handing extended brief to director of bingo Alison Digges (pictured)
Gala Interactive has promoted Gala Bingo director Alison Digges to the newly created role of gaming director following the departure of casino head Kasper Trier-Poulsen.
The new position sees Digges combine the responsibilities for UK-facing brands Gala Bingo and Gala Casino, with the rejig coming after Trier-Poulsen decided to relocate to the UK from Gala’s Gibraltar base.
Digges originally joined Gala as director of Gala Bingo in February 2012 having previously worked as marketing director at Victor Chandler and more recently in other bingo and marketing roles at GTECH G2.
In heading-up Gala’s bingo subsidiary, Digges oversaw the brand’s recent diversification into new verticals including the launch of its sportsbook Flutter and lottery betting product.
Betfred.com appoints new commercial head
Betfred.com has promoted head of commercials Russell Young to the position of commercial director, replacing new online MD Rakesh Chablani.
Young’s appointment, which was announced to staff on Friday afternoon, will see him assume responsibility for Betfred.com’s commercial operations as well as the operator’s application for a new UK operating licence.
His promotion to the role comes after predecessor Chablani was chosen to replace Betfred’s outgoing managing director Chris Sheffield earlier this month.
Seven days in people news:
Mr Green CMO departs
Mr Green’s chief marketing officer Henrik Svensson has left the casino operator, sparking a reorganisation which has seen his responsibilities split into two separate roles.
Former Nordic Group CEO and Betway Sweden manager Svensson leaves Malta-based Mr Green after more than a year-and-a-half and is set to return to his native Sweden.
Mr Green CEO Mikael Pawlo confirmed Svensson’s departure and said the decision to separate his duties between two roles had been designed to “maintain velocity” in its operations and roll-out activities.
Q&A: Henrik Tjärnström, CEO, Unibet
eGaming Review (eGR): What were the highlights for you in the Q2 results?
Henrik Tjärnström (HT): The World Cup was clearly a significant opportunity for us. We had a detailed plan in place in the year leading up to the event and we executed it well. We needed to deliver a good user experience for the customer to maximise opportunity, in-take and reactivation.
eGR: What do you feel worked well in particular during the World Cup?
HT: We were very active in the offering we were able to give during the tournament including items like scorecast and handicaps, and we had a lot of interest in the new bet offers that we provided. We had over 300 bet offers on pre-match events and over 200 on live betting, so we had a really strong offering which helped us a lot. We have a strong position in Netherlands and France, and having those countries in the tournament go quite far was good for acquisition and reactivation.