People news 22 May 2014
The latest people news from the egaming industry in the last seven days (16 May to 22 May 2014)
Bwin.party strikes compromise agreement with Ader
President of Ader Investment Management Daniel Silvers joins bwin.party board as activist investor pledges to work with firm to “realise potential”
Bwin.party’s verbal wranglings with activist investor Jason Ader appear to have come to an end as the two parties struck an agreement to work together on appointing the operator’s new directors.
The deal sees one of Ader’s board nominations, Daniel Silvers, take a place on bwin.party’s board and as a result his SpringOwl investment firm has withdrawn its four resolutions that were scheduled to be put to shareholders at today’s AGM.
Ader made the directorial nominations after he acquired a 5.25% stake earlier this year and has been critical of bwin.party’s board, claiming poor strategic decision making has caused the firm’s share price to fall in recent years.
Last week bwin.party announced it is seeking to overhaul a third of its boardwith the addition of three new directors and the departure of the same number including co-founder Manfred Bodner.
Betfair names ex-Ticketmaster VP as US chief
Betfair has appointed ecommerce veteran Kip Levin who was named as CEO of Betfair’s US business.
Levin, who has held senior executive roles at Live Nation and Ticketmaster, takes responsibility for horseracing firm TVG, America’s Horseracing Network and Betfair Casino, its online casino gambling and poker operation in New Jersey.
Prior to joining Betfair Levin was executive vice-president of ecommerce at Live Nation for more than four years, having previously led Ticketmaster’s product and digital business.
Betfair’s group CEO Breon Corcoran praised Levin’s multi-product, mobile and large-scale business experience as “great fit” to the firm’s US and global business strategy.
Seven days in people news:
Haddrill returns to Bally Technologies as CEO
Bally Technologies announced the departure of current CEO Ramesh Srinivasan on Thursday as Richard Haddrill returned to lead the company after a two-and-a-half year absence.
Srinivasan was named CEO in November 2012 having previously served as president and COO for more than a year and executive vice-president of systems for six years prior to that.
Last year he oversaw the acquisition and integration of SHFL entertainment, the company it acquired in a deal worth US$1.3bn and one which Srinivasan described as “a game changer for the industry“.
Haddrill will now return to the top job after a two-year spell away from Bally. Prior to being succeeded by Srinivasan in 2012 he had served as CEO and chairman for eight years.