888 announces Randy Freer’s resignation from board

888 has announced that Randy Freer will immediately step down from his position on the board. Freer resigned from his board position due to increased external commitments. He currently serves as chairperson of the board at the Diamond Sports Group, senior advisor at McKinsey & Company and CEO of The Freer Company. Freer is also a veteran of the media industry having worked as CEO at Disney-owned streaming platform Hulu between October 2017 to March 2020, and before that as president and COO of the Fox Networks Group and co-president and COO at Fox Sports Media Group. Alongside the announcement, Lord Mendelsohn, non-executive chairman of 888, said: “On behalf of the board, I would like to thank Randy for his contributions during his short time with 888, and wish him well for the future. “With the highly relevant skills and experience of our recently strengthened board, we continue to see exciting opportunities ahead as we deliver the Group’s growth strategy and generate further stakeholder value.” Earlier this month, 888 announced a 13% slump in H1 2022 revenue, mainly down to the decline in UK revenue due to safer gambling and the closure of the group’s Dutch operations. EBITDA was also down by 29% to £50m, and was lower than expected due to continued investment in its US Sports Illustrated (SI) sportsbook launches and additional compliance-related costs. The results were the first since the completion of the firm’s multi-billion-pound deal to acquire the UK and international bookmaker William Hill. At present, 888 is currently conducting a strategic review of its existing operational brands with a view to taking the best-performing brands in each area and investing in them while reducing investment in the lower-performing brands.