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UK Tote Group brings in new senior leadership

UK and Irish pool operator UK Tote Group has hired two new CCOs to support its growth strategy and expand its international and domestic networks.

Jon Knapman joins Tote Group as chief commercial officer of the group’s international B2B business. With its recent expansion into US, South African and Hong Kong markets, the international business has seen substantial growth.

Dave Hammond becomes the chief commercial officer (UK) of the operator’s domestic operation. Hammond brings 25 years of experience in the industry from numerous senior operational roles in companies such as Inspired Gaming, Paddy Power, Betfair and DraftKings.

“As we continue to execute our growth strategy for the business and, following three years of significant expansion within international markets with many more opportunities on the horizon, we now have two extremely strong leaders focussed on driving the commercial performance of our international and UK businesses,” UK Tote Group chief executive Alex Fros..

March 13, 2023

Fredrik Elmqvist: Other side of the coin

Sports Betting News Bookiecity

Slots veteran Fredrik Elmqvist is turning his luck to the mad bad world of sports betting – but will it work?

Elmqvist is well-deserving of his reputation as the king of slots.

But – more than 10 years on from his epoch-making launch of Yggdrasil – the Stockholm native is turning his luck to the decidedly different proposition of sports betting in his latest project ParlayBay, which seeks to make its name as the new champions of micro betting.

The Swedish entrepreneur certainly has a nose for where the action is, describing it a “pretty interesting” time to be setting out on a venture such as this.

Elmqvist describes a US sports betting landscape that is shifting into a new, subtler gear following the marketing wars that characterised the earlier days of the PASPA repeal.

“For a few years there’s been a shift into sports betting – and you see in the United States rollout both the need for new products and to keep the marketing costs down, as well as still get new players coming ..

February 20, 2023

MyRacehorse appoints ex-Betfair racing head as marketing director

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MyRacehorse, a micro-share horse racing syndicate, has hired ex-Betfair head of racing Will De Nardo to lead on its UK and Ireland marketing efforts.

De Nardo has been appointed as MyRacehorse’s UK and Ireland marketing director and global gaming advisor.

In his new role, he will lead the company’s customer base expansion.

De Nardo joins MyRacehorse after close to 10 years working at various Flutter Entertainment brands, spending time at Sky Betting & Gaming and FoxBet before moving on to Betfair.

“Will brings an additional and important marketing skill set to our UK and Ireland business due to his invaluable experience at Flutter,” said MyRacehorse managing partner Jules Pittam.

“He will be influential in enhancing the owner experience as well as working with new partners as he develops gaming opportunities around the world. We are delighted to have someone of such high calibre join the team.”

de nardo said he aims to replicate the business’ success in new markets

De Nardo sa..

January 27, 2023

James Arnold appointed CEO of The Football Pools

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Industry executive James Arnold has been appointed chief executive of iconic British betting business The Football Pools.

Arnold began his new role earlier this month, at the start of the business’ centenary year.

He joins from Noel Hayden’s LiveScore Group, which runs the Virgin Bet and LiveScore Bet sports betting brands, where he spent three years first as chief operating officer, then chief commercial officer.

Earlier in his career, Arnold worked for the likes of Betway, Boylesports and SportingBet, holding a number of marketing and executive roles during his tenure with each operator.

He replaces Derek Lloyd, who served as CEO of The Football Pools since July 2017.

Arnold said he was “delighted” to take charge of an iconic british brand

“I’m delighted to be joining such an iconic British brand at a time of significant change and development,” Arnold said.

“A lot of good work has already been done to reposition the company for growth and I look forward to working with ..

January 19, 2023

Kambi to pursue efficiencies as it aims for €150m profit goal

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Kambi expects to pursue a more personnel-light strategy within its trading department by 2027 as it pivots to an algorithm-led approach in order to hit an ambitious long-term operating profit target.

Kambi this morning revealed a €150m (£130.9m/$161.9m) earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) target for 2027 and, in a capital markets day, executives outlined how the business intends to reach that figure.

The business also revealed that it expected revenue in 2027 to be between two and three times the size of its 2022 revenue. As the relative growth in EBIT would be larger than the relative growth in revenue, this suggested that Kambi hopes to increase its profit margins as it expands.

Now, the supplier has provided more detail of this, with a pivot towards more algorithmic trading helping to drive the projected increase in efficiency.

Kambi embracing algorithmic trading

Kambi deputy chief executive Erik Lögdberg described this pivot as “third-generation sports betting”. He said th..

January 12, 2023

Gaming Society and UNLV partner for research into women’s sports and betting

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Betting education platform Gaming Society and the International Gaming Institute (IGI), a nonprofit academic centre at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) have partnered to conduct research into female sports and betting as well as collaborate on educational development.

The aim of the research is to better understand female sports bettors, women’s sports fans’ attitudes on betting and industry investment in sponsorship of women’s sports.

IGI and Gaming Society will focus on collecting and analysing wide ranges of data in the sports betting, technology and media sector.

“Market research and data on fan behaviour is critical in driving future innovation within the sports betting industry,” Gaming Society co-founder Jaymee Messler said. “Over the past year, Gaming Society has partnered with leading leagues and brands to make sports betting more inclusive and deepen fan engagement, with particular focus on women bettors and women’s sport.”

Additional collaboration between th..

December 13, 2022

PointsBet nominates new non-executive director to board

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PointsBet has nominated William Grounds to its board as an independent non-executive director, in line with its recent activity in the US market.

Grounds previously served as president and chief operating officer of Infinity World Development Corp, an affiliate of Dubai World. Here, he headed up the $7bn (£5.69bn/€6.64bn) investment in CityCenter Resort & Casino in Las Vegas with joint venture partner MGM Resorts International.

He also served as a non-executive director of MGM Resorts International between 2013 and 2021. In this time, the BetMGM venture with Entain was formed after the repeal of PASPA. MGM said this gave Grounds a deep understanding of the igaming market with experience in ongoing governance and oversight of strategy and execution.

He has also been licensed in a number of jurisdictions in the United States.

The appointment comes after the Australia-founded bookmaker expanded its operations in the US igaming market. The company intends to rapidly grow its already p..

November 7, 2022

Laila Mintas announces new venture, PlayEngine

Sports Betting News Bookiecity

Former PlayUp US chief executive Laila Mintas has co-founded a new venture, PlayEngine, and joined as chief executive.

The new business is a “microservices-based” B2B sports betting and igaming platform. The business said that it will “provide its customers with a tailor-made, individual solution that is reliable, scalable, fast and secure”.

Its sportsbook offering will allow clients to accept payments from cryptocurrency as well as fiat money and will include a “travelling wallet” to allow players to use the same wallet in different jurisdictions.

PlayEngine was initially created through the Berkeley Skydeck startup incubator.

“I am very excited about being a co-founder and the CEO of PlayEngine,” Laila Mintas said. “The sports betting and igaming market is just too competitive to work off legacy tech.

“There is a huge need for agile and modern technology and I truly believe that we have the most automated and data-driven product in the market, which will enable the sportsbettin..

November 4, 2022

Fanatics hires Brandt Iden as VP of government affairs

Sports Betting News Bookiecity

Fanatics Betting and Gaming has hired former Michigan legislator Brandt Iden as its new vice-president of government affairs, as the business edges closer to launching its betting product.

Iden was elected to the Michigan House of Representatives in 2014, until 2020 when he reached the state term limit. During this time he spearheaded the efforts to legalise both sports betting and online casino gaming in the state.

He then joined Sportradar, where he was head of government affairs during a period in which the business went public on the Nasdaq exchange.

Now, he joins Fanatics ahead of the apparel brand’s long-rumoured launch of a sports betting operation.

Read the full story on iGB North America

July 28, 2022

Flutter to lay off staff in UK and Ireland

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Betting and gaming giant Flutter will make a number of redundancies in the UK and Ireland, following an internal review.

The business, which operates brands including Paddy Power, Betfair and Sky Bet in the region, did not provide details of how many redundancies there would be or which roles would be affected.

However, a spokesperson did say that it expects the majority of those whose roles are eliminated to find new positions with Flutter. As a result, there would be only a “small number” of job losses.

“These proposed changes reflect the next phase of our integration, as we look to consolidate parallel operating models and position the business to continue growing against a more challenging operating environment,” the spokesperson said.

“While we have sought to minimise the impact this will have on our colleagues, with most employees affected being redeployed into alternative or newly created roles, the proposals may lead to a small number of job losses.

“We are communicatin..

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