People news 8 August 2013
The latest people moves from the egaming industry in the last seven days (2 August to 8 August 2013)
888 poker chief Gareth Edwards exits
Internal memo seen by eGaming Review reveals director has resigned from operator after nearly seven years
888’s poker director Gareth Edwards is to leave the company after almost seven years, eGaming Review has learned.
It is understood he has yet to secure another role and it’s not known at this stage who his replacement will be.
Edwards joined the operator in 2007 as director of poker marketing and has since been instrumental in changing the fortunes of its poker business.
Under Edwards’ stewardship, 888 scooped eGR’s poker operator of the year 2012 (pictured, second from right) and June this year saw the company overtake PartyPoker in the traffic rankings for the first time.
A focus on recreational players following the launch of Poker 6, the operator’s new software introduced in June 2010, saw 888’s poker revenues outperform the industry and today’s H1 results revealed 888’s poker revenues were up 13% year-on-year to $47m.
Seven days in people news:
Bwin.party head of poker to be replaced by PokerStars exec
Bwin.party head of poker Chris Welch is to leave the company next month to be replaced by PokerStars director of strategy and business development Jeffrey Haas.
Jeffrey Haas joins from PokerStars where he has headed up the recent mobile and social launches and will work alongside Welch prior to his departure.
Welch will continue to oversee the relaunch of bwin.party’s poker product, which is currently in beta testing ahead of a launch later this month. The overhaul of the poker product was announced in August 2012 and originally slated to launch in Q1 this year, but has been delayed.
Bwin’s poker offering has struggled as of late, with double-digit drops in revenue recorded in Q1 continuing into Q2. The company’s Q2 trading update considered revenues to be “softer than expected”, with CEO Norbert Teufelberger highlighting new product launches and entry into the New Jersey market as reasons to anticipate a return to growth.
International Game Technology (IGT) has announced the appointments of Tracey Weber and Eric Brown to the firm’s board of directors. Weber most recently held the position of CitiBank’s managing director, North America Internet, Mobile and Global Product and Brown is chief operating officer, chief financial officer and executive vice president of Polycom Inc.
ComTrade Gaming has promoted Ales Gornjec to the position of general manager and will be responsible for driving the growth of the company. Gornjec has been at ComTrade Gaming since 1996 having joined as a software developer and project manager and said he was excited to play a “key role in shaping ComTrade Gaming’s future.”
Zillah Byng-Maddick has been appointed by BetFair Group as a non-executive director and a member of the audit committee. Byng-Maddick previously held positions of chief financial officer and interim chief executive of Tradar Media Group. She will take up her new role on 5 September 2013.