Ladbrokes,recruitment,Sporting Index,Richard Gl;ynn,Christopher Bell

LADBROKES’ new chief executive will be Sporting Index chairman and former chief executive Richard Glynn, the British bookmaker has confirmed.

Glynn (pictured), a former lawyer who has been Sporting Index chairman since May 2008 and was its chief executive from 2001, replaces outgoing Ladbrokes chief executive Chris Bell, who in January revealed that he will step down this summer after 20 years with the company.

His appointment ends months of speculation about who would take over from Bell, with online head John O’Reilly and Andy Harrison also heavily linked, the latter of which departed as boss of Easyjet to take up an offer from Premier InnHotels and Costa Coffee owner Whitbread, earlier this month.

Ladbrokes chairman Peter Erskine said: “We conducted a thorough international search and selection process and had a number of high quality candidates to choose from.

“Richard combines entrepreneurial energy with industry experience. His nine years’ experience of the betting and gaming industry combined with his successful transformation of Sporting Index into a leading international and innovative spread betting business makes him ideally suited to lead the reinvigoration of Ladbrokes.”

Prior to joining Sporting Index in 2001, Glynn worked at businesses including film production company Megalomedia and communications business Caribiner International. He is a former partner at law firm Nicholson Graham and Jones, since merged into US law firm K&L Gates, and held roles at law firms Henry Schroder Wagg and SJ Berwin.

Glynn will take up the new position on 22 April, and will receive a base salary of £580,000 per annum.

He will be eligible to participate in the Ladbrokes annual bonus scheme and performance share plan on the same basis as Chris Bell, and will receive a salary supplement in lieu of a pension contribution of 22.5% of his salary (£130,500).

The incoming Ladbrokes chief will also be entitled to receive 1.177m Ladbrokes shares with a value of £1.75m to compensate for his having to relinquish a number of current remuneration and equity interests. He will be required to hold this interest in Ladbrokes shares for a minimum of three years.

Glynn will also receive a one-off incentive award upon appointment, based upon delivery of value to Ladbrokes’ shareholders over a five year period.

He will receive an award of roughly four million Ladbrokes shares, with the extent to which this award will vest dependent on the achievement of what the company described as “extremely stretching” share price targets over a five-year period, and will also be subject to his holding at least 1m of his Ladbrokes shares for the duration.

The award will have no value unless a share price of at least £2.00 is attained, meaning that around £400m of value will need to be delivered to shareholders before Glynn is entitled to share in any value.

Glynn will be attending next month’s Power 50 executive summit.

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