People news 19 September 2017
The latest people news from the egaming industry in the last seven days (12 to 19 September 2017)
Sportech CEO Ian Penrose resigns amid management restructure
Penrose to leave after 12 years at the London-listed firm as CFO Mickey Kalifa also announces his departure
Sportech’s long-serving CEO Ian Penrose has resigned from the company as part of a broader management restructure which will also see CFO Mickey Kalifa leave the firm.
Penrose, who will remain with the operator until 31 December, leaves Sportech after 12 years at the helm having originally joined the London-listed firm from Arena Leisure in October 2005.
During his tenure, Penrose helped the business secure the £97m gross receipt from its VAT litigation case, led the £83m sale of the Football Pools to private equity firm OpCapita and repaid £65m of debt.
“We would like to thank Ian for the tremendous job he has performed at Sportech,” Richard McGuire, non-executive chairman of Sportech, said.
Ladbrokes Coral unveils new tech hub
Ladbrokes Coral has revealed plans to merge its Stratford-based sports product and technology operations and relocate the new team to a new office in the nearby Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
Dubbed LC2, the 140 staff-strong team will move into the Here East technology hub in Stratford, alongside BT Sport, Signal Noise, and Ford’s European Smart Mobility Innovation office.
The new office will be comprised of software engineers, analysts, architects and sports product specialists who will be tasked with delivering CRM and ePOS operations, and maintaining the digital sportsbook platform.
Additional staff will be brought on to help the firm further differentiate its products in the marketplace and develop new projects.
Affiliates to create trade group in face of regulatory scrutiny
A group of leading affiliates and gaming legal experts are setting up a trade body to help the affiliate sector tackle the increasing regulatory scrutiny it is facing.
The new body, to be named the International Gaming Affiliate Association (iGAA), aims to establish a code of practice to ensure affiliates are promoting gambling in a responsible way and acting in compliance with all local laws.
The iGAA, which is still in the process of being established, has sprung up in response to increased scrutiny of the egaming affiliate market in recent weeks.
Several mainstream news outlets ran articles criticising affiliate practices and operators have responded, with Sky Bet cutting its affiliate programme over regulatory concerns, and Paddy Power Betfair warning partners it has adopted a “one strike policy”.
France Pari promotes Kévin Brocard to COO
French operator France Pari has promoted Kévin Brocard to the role of group chief operations officer (COO) after nearly more than 18 months heading up the firm’s B2B division.
Brocard assumed his new role on 1 September having originally joined the Toulouse-headquartered company in January 2016 as head of B2B operations within its Sportnco entity.
“It was time for us to re-assess our management structure to take full advantage of our strong growth and momentum,” Hervé Schlosser, founder and CEO of France Pari Group, said.
He added: “Kévin has been acting as a bridge between all components of our organisation since he joined us in early 2016 and this came as an obvious decision that received unanimous support from the Board.