People news 13 March 2014
The latest people news from the egaming industry in the last seven days (7 March to 13 March 2014)
Hills appoints Sadler as head of bingo
Robert Sadler replaces former vertical head Barry Sage who left the firm last month
William Hill has appointed former mobile gaming operations manager Robert Sadler to head up its bingo business, replacing Barry Sage who left to join rival bookmaker Ladbrokes last month.
Gibraltar-based Sadler joined William Hill in 2002 when he was appointed as internet customer services manager, a role he held for over four years, before becoming bingo operations manager in 2006.
He later went on to hold numerous managerial positions at the operator including skills manager, gaming operations manager and table games operations manager.
Former head of bingo Barry Sage, who is set to take up his new role at Ladbrokes in May, joined William Hill two years ago and is set to be reunited with Ladbrokes’ digital managing director Jim Mullen, who also left Hills to join Ladbrokes in October.
Betfair board reshuffles following Peter Rigby appointment
Betfair has announced former Informa CEO Peter Rigby is to join the company as a non-executive director next month as part of a number of changes to the board’s structure.
Current non-executive directors Mike McTighe and Fru Hazlitt are to retire with effect from 31 March, becoming the second and third long-standing board members to stand down this year after Flutter founder Josh Hannah retired in January.
McTighe joined Betfair as a director in 2008 and had held the roles of senior independent director and remuneration committee chairman, while Fru Hazlitt was appointed as a director of The Sporting Exchange in 2005 before becoming a non-executive director of Betfair following its incorporation three years later.
Following McTighe’s departure Ian Dyson, a board member since 2010, will become the senior independent director and sit on the nomination committee, and Betfair chairman Gerald Corbett will replace Hazlitt as chair of the corporate responsibility committee.
Seven days in people news:
Mr Green brings in new product chief
Mr Green has strengthened its management team after appointing Thomas Rosander as its new chief product officer (CPO).
Rosander, who joins the online casino from Electronic Arts, has been tasked with improving Mr Green’s overall customer experience, a remit which will see him oversee areas such as website development, games, customer services and payments.
His appointment has filled the void created by the departure of Mr Green’s former CPO Markus Aurala, who joined the Betsson Group as head of casino in December.
Sagi to float payment solutions provider SafeCharge
Playtech founder Teddy Sagi is to list payments provider SafeCharge on London’s Alternative Investment Market this morning, a week after he raised around £326m through the sale of Playtech shares.
According to the Financial Times, the listing would take SafeCharge’s market capitalisation to between £210m-£230m and see Sagi’s 90% stake in the company dilute to around 63%.
The firm is hoping to raise $100m in new equity from the listing in order to fund the development of a new digital wallet solution and potential future acquisitions.