People news 13/12/12
A round-up of industry moves from the last week (7 December to 13 December 2012).
Paddys appoints former diplomat to corporate affairs role
Catherine Colloms will take on newly created role of director of corporate affairs next month.
Former Foreign Office senior diplomat Catherine Colloms has been named Paddy Power’s director of corporate affairs and will assume the newly created role next month.
Colloms’ appointment comes as the Irish operator prepares to unveil its new visual brand identity, which was announced last week and is hoped to better reflect the company’s mischievous image.
She is currently a director at corporate communications firm Brunswick, where she has been since 2006, specialising in crisis management and corporate reputation.
Previously, while at the Foreign Office, Colloms worked as a speechwriter for MPs Douglas Alexander and Geoff Hoon, as well as serving as senior advisor to former Liberal Democrat leader Lord Ashdown, then High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Betting Promotion undergoes executive reshuffle
Swedish data and trading solutions provider Betting Promotion has announced that its deputy CEO Pär Timby and CTO Christian Malmros are to leave the business at the end of the year.
In a statement released this morning the company said that having worked on the development of their product offering over the past few years, the company would be hiring “sales-oriented” management to embark on a sales and marketing push.
The news comes after yesterday’s announcement that egaming platform provider Tain was to acquire a 18% stake in the company, which in turn came just days after it completed its move to the Nasdaq OMX First North stock exchange.
Seven days in people moves:
IG Group reduces headcount as revenues fall
Financial betting operator IG Group has cut and plans to continue to reduce staff headcount amid a 14% year-on-year revenue decline, the company has revealed in its trading update for the six months ended 30 November.
The fall in revenues slowed during the second quarter, with the £87.5m total representing a 9% year-on-year drop, however the operator has pledged to “Continue to take…a disciplined approach to managing the cost base, whilst continuing to invest in developing the business to reinforce its market-leading positions.” No exact numbers were given as to how many staff had left or plan to be made redundant.
IG Group’s revenues from its core UK market were down 15% compared to H1 2011-12, with revenues per client relatively flat but the number of clients down 14% year-on-year. The same was true of Australia, with revenues per client down 2% and active clients down 12% compared to the corresponding period last year.
Hippodrome appoints director of online
The Hippodrome Casino has appointed Pokerroom.com veteran George Constantinou to head up its online operations, the land-based London casino has announced.
Constantinou will oversee the launch of a Hippodrome-branded casino next month, which will be built by Microgaming and operated by Betway.
Meanwhile the venue in London’s West End will unveil a PokerStars-branded poker deck and accompanying online poker offering later next year, following the Isle of Man-licensed operator taking a minority shareholding in the business in October.
Social sports betting business Bodugi has agreed a sponsorship deal with Dutch darts player Michael van Gerwen. Known as ‘Mighty Mike’, 23-year-old van Gerwen became the youngest ever World Masters champion when he won the event in 2006, and in October this year won the World Grand Prix in Dublin.
A player at Butlers Bingo site has won the largest ever payout awarded to an online bingo player. The £5.88m payout was awarded to a player on Microgaming’s Dark Knight slot, just weeks after a Norwegian player won a NOK5.4m (£595,000) payout on a progressive jackpot in the same game.
William Hill has awarded the highest ever payout on a mobile slot, with a player from the UK winning £341,259 last Sunday. The anonymous player had staked £12 on the Leprechauns Luck slot, an Ash Gaming title.