People news 5 March 2015
The latest people news from the egaming industry in the last seven days (27 February to 5 March 2015)
GameAccount’s commercial director Daniel Lindsay departs
Chief exec Dermot Smurfit says Lindsay’s departure is “a total one off” and not part of a wider restructuring of the company
GameAccount Network has confirmed that its commercial director Daniel Lindsay has left the firm.
Lindsay joined the London-based platform and content supplier in 2013 and was responsible for overseeing its commercial activities and B2B marketing outside of North America.
GameAccount CEO Dermot Smurfit said they had “parted ways amicably” and that Lindsay had “delivered well” for the company during his tenure.
Smurfit said that GameAccount’s corporate development director Alistair Boston-Smith would look after its EMEA London-based commercial team in the interim as it considers its longer-term options.
He also said Lindsay’s departure was a “total one off” and not part of a wider restructuring of the company.
Prior to joining GameAccount Network, Lindsay held general manager roles at gaming giant Aristocrat.
“I thoroughly enjoyed working at GameAccount,” Lindsay said. “The company is going through such an exciting phase at the moment and I hope it will continue to build on the successes achieved during my time there,” he added.
ComeOn! CEO stands down ahead of UK push
Nordics-facing operator ComeOn! is on the search for a new chief executive with Hans Martin Nakkim standing down to take up a role as a director with the firm.
Nakkim, who joined the Malta-based firm in October 2012 and became CEO three months later, will now focus his time on building ComeOn!’s white-label business and B2B partnerships.
Speaking to eGR, Nakkim said the firm was focused on becoming a “sustainable and bigger player” and was now in the process of looking for a successor that could offer marketing expertise and strong leadership qualities.
Seven days in people news:
OpenBet to increase headcount by 10%
OpenBet has kicked-off a significant recruitment drive as it looks to add approximately 50 staff members to further the development of its omni-channel product offering.
The sportsbook and gaming supplier, which currently has a headcount of approximately 500 spread across its London, Athens, Quebec and Sydney offices, said it expected that tally to increase by 10% in the coming months.
The new roles are in the firm’s development and technology teams and the new recruits will be tasked with helping the company build a market-leading suite of omni-channel products.
Caesars Interactive names Craig Abrahams as president
Caesars Interactive Entertainment (CIE) has reshuffled its senior management team and named current chief financial officer Craig Abrahams as its new president.
Abrahams will continue as CFO but will take over some responsibility from Caesars Interactive chief exec Mitch Garber, who has taken on a wider corporate role within the casino group.
Caesars Interactive spokesman Seth Palansky said that Abrahams was a “key executive” with “fingerprints on all of our company’s successes to date”.
Ex-Nasdaq SVP set to join Net Entertainment board
Net Entertainment is set to add former Nasdaq SVP and technology sector veteran Jenny Rosberg to its board of directors.
Rosberg will become the eighth director at the Sweden-based egaming firm after its Nominations Committee proposed expanding the board from seven members.
All seven previous directors have also been proposed to be re-elected, including chairman of the board Vigo Carlund.
Webis Holdings pulls plug on betinternet.com
Online gambling firm Webis Holdings announced the closure of its betinternet.com brand after 15 years in operation due to “onerous” regulatory burdens introduced in core Asian markets.
The fixed-odds sports betting operation, which launched in 2000, will shut on today (5 March) in a move that will see most of the brand’s Isle of Man-based employees leave the company as it switches focus to its US pari-mutuel betting business.
The decision comes after authorities in betinternet.com’s main market Singapore last month introduced a ban on most forms of online gambling, significantly reducing the sportsbook’s customer base and throwing the profitability of the business into doubt.
Medialivecasino has hired former TCS John Huxley business development director John Galajsza as its new sales manager for land-based casinos.
Galajsza joins the live online software for land-based casinos having already spent 35 years in the online gambling industry.
“[Galajsza] will help us increase our market share in the land based casino market offering our tailored solutions to physical casinos, which is greatly helped by the issuing of our new UK licence by the Gambling Commission,” Angelo De Gobbi, head of business development at Medialivecasino, said.
Virtual sports software development company VSoftCo has announced the appointment of Simon Westbury as its new director of sales.
Westbury has worked in the industry for a number of years, including a stint at Amaya Gaming, and will be responsible for global sales, account management and distributing virtual content.
“[Westbury] will be a great asset to the VSoftCo team and we are delighted to have him on board,” Scott McCabe, director of VSoftCo, said.”
“We are currently enhancing our product portfolio, and looking to expand our platform so we are pleased to have Simon’s experience to help keep VSoftCo at the forefront of the virtual sports games market,” he added.