People news 19 November 2015
The latest people news from the egaming industry in the last seven days (13 November to 19 November 2015)
Hills brings back Aaron Johnston to boost online
Johnston appointed as online consultant to CEO James Henderson almost two-years after leaving firm
William Hill has appointed former Playtech stalwart Aaron Johnston as a consultant to chief executive James Henderson as the firm looks to return its stuttering online business back to growth.
Johnston will primarily be based at William Hill’s Gibraltar offices where eGR understands he has been tasked with analysing and improving the performance of the operator’s digital business, including establishing best practice across its numerous divisions.
The hire marks a return to the firm for Johnston, who previously carried out a consultancy role at Hills before his departure at the start of 2014.
Sources close to William Hill told eGR the re-appointment will have come as a “shock” to many senior members of the online team.
PKR bolsters management team with batch of new hires
Online poker operator PKR has bolstered its management team after hiring a quartet of executives boasting experience from the likes of Ladbrokes and bwin.party.
The new hires have joined its marketing and payments teams, with Stephan Clavel having arrived from bwin.party as head of CRM.
New head of payments Krishna Brennan has been brought in after five years at Ladbrokes, while Alexandra Mihaiu has joined as head of affiliates after holding similar positions at Betclic and Matchbook.
Seven days in people news:
Hammond joins Paddy Power from Inspired
Paddy Power has named David Hammond as head of retail product and innovation as it looks to develop its omni-channel strategy.
Hammond joins the Irish bookmaker from Inspired Games, where he was SVP of mobile operation, and has been tasked with creating new customer acquisition points between retail and online.
Hammond said he had “long been an admirer” of the Paddy Power business model and modus operandi, and he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to join the team.
“While my 18 years at Inspired have been an amazing journey, the Paddy Power leadership team’s vision and drive to deliver the best customer experience in the industry and consistently push technology advances to our customers is simply one I wanted to add my experience too,” he told the Racing Post.
William Hill Australia cuts 20 trading roles
William Hill Australia (WHA) has made approximately 20 traders redundant as the operator looks to centralise its trading functions and divert additional resources into IT and product development.
The operator’s management announced the job cuts to affected staff last week with the redundant trading roles to be replaced by Gibraltar-generated price feeds used by William Hill’s UK arm.
The job losses have been concentrated on William Hill’s Darwin office where the trading team is understood to have halved in number and led to both the head of sport and head of racing walking out in protest.
Betsson Denmark MD departs
Managing director of Betsson AB’s Danish business Peter Weinreich will leave the company in the coming weeks, eGR has learned.
Weinreich, who will leave before Christmas once the handover to his successor is complete, is to take up a chief marketing officer role outside of the online gambling industry.
He has managed Betsson’s Denmark-facing brands including NordicBet.dk and BetSafe.dk for nearly two years having joined the operator in December 2013.
Scientific Games CFO retires
Scientific Games has announced chief financial officer Scott Schweinfurth will retire from the lottery and gaming giant at the end of the financial year.
The firm said it had already begun its search for Schweinfurth’s replacement, and had retained executive search firm Egon Zehnder to assess both internal and external candidates.
Scientific Games said Schweinfurth would continue his role until its year-end audit and a replacement has been found, and would work closely with management to ensure a smooth transition.