Rational appoints new COO amid wider changes
Israel Rosenthal succeeds Rafi Ashkenazi (pictured) as chief operating officer as Gino Appiotti is appointed CMO
Rational Group has appointed Israel Rosenthal to the role of chief operating officer as the business continues its reorganisation following last year’s acquisition by Amaya Gaming.
Rosenthal has taken the COO reins from Rafi Ashkenazi, who is set to assume a new role at Amaya. Rosenthal had previously worked for Rational in several senior operations roles.
Ashkenazi, formerly head of operations at Playtech, had previously served as Full Tilt’s acting managing director until the appointment of Dominic Mansour last April.
Rational has also confirmed Gino Appiotti will become chief marketing officer, taking over from Alex Payne who moved to eBay last year.
Appiotti was previously Rational’s president of Southern Europe, where he oversaw the company’s diversification push away from a poker-only model.
The changes were announced internally last week, with Rosenthal set to be based in the company’s Isle of Man headquarters, while Appiotti will remain in Rational’s Malta office.
Just months after completing its acquisition of Rational, Amaya seems intent on making big changes. It has moved to diversify the brands, introducing online casinos across most of its markets and recently announcing the launch of a PokerStars sportsbook.
It has also disposed of its B2B assets – more recently selling online casino platforms Chartwell and Cryptologic to NYX Gaming for CA$150m (£81m).
Earlier this month, CEO David Baazov revealed plans to significantly increase marketing spend for its PokerStars and Full Tilt brands as it looks to double the size of the poker sector.