Ladbrokes poaches Hill's head of bingo
Barry Sage to join Ladbrokes as head of ecomm in latest move to drive digital revenues
Ladbrokes has bolstered its Israel-based digital team after securing the services of William Hill’s head of bingo Barry Sage, eGaming Review can reveal.
Sage will take on the role of Ladbrokes’ head of ecommerce, a division formed following the last year’s partnership with software supplier Playtech.
eGR understands Sage has already left William Hill ahead of his planned April start date at his new employers.
Sage joined William Hill in August 2012 and previously held roles at bet365 and BetVictor before spending four-and-a-half years as head of gambling and gaming at News International.
The appointment will see Sage reunited with Ladbrokes’ digital managing director Jim Mullen, who also left Hills to join Ladbrokes in October.
“We recognised we needed some clear leadership on our ecomm side and Barry Sage has considerable gaming experience and is going to launch and lead our ecomm products,” Mullen told eGR.
According to a statement released by Ladbrokes last year, the ecommerce division was formed in order to support Playtech’s CRM strategy with a focus on digital marketing services.
News of the appointment follows a “disappointing” set of full-year results for Ladbrokes, which saw digital profits slump 74% to £8.2m.
The operator attributed the performance to delays over its migration to Playtech’s full-suite of products after it failed to reach an agreement to terminate its contract with its existing supplier Microgaming.
The full migration is expected to be completed by the end of H1 2014 and is expected to impact its next half yearly results.
William Hill declined to comment on the article.
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