People news 31 March 2016
The latest people news from the egaming industry in the last seven days (25 March to 31 March 2016)
Baazov steps aside amid insider dealing charges
Chief exec still plans to table offer to acquire Amaya in its entirety
Amaya CEO David Baazov has taken an “indefinite leave of absence” from the firm while he “vigorously contests” charges of insider trading filed against him this month.
Amaya said Baazov wanted to “avoid a distraction” for the company while he fought the five charges filed by the Autorit? des march?s financiers (AMF) last Wednesday.
Baazov said he would also use the time to continue working on his offer to acquire Amaya in its entirety after revealing plans to takeover the firm at the start of the year.
“As always, I continue to be dedicated to doing the right thing for Amaya and all its stakeholders,” Baazov said.
Q&A: Jesse Learmonth, product R&D manager, Pinnacle Sports
Pinnacle Sports has made delivering new innovations a top priority and in recent months has launched a new beta sports site and mobile web upgrades.
And to help with the development of new products, the Cura?§ao-based firm last autumn created a new product research and development (R&D) team.
The R&D team hit the ground running with the recent launch of the company’s first native mobile app – Pinnacle Lite – which visualises recent odds changes in a chart and lets users set alerts when a game reaches a certain price.
Seven days in people news:
Catena Media appoints new product chief
Egaming performance marketing firm Catena Media has announced the appointment of Oscar Karlsten as the company’s new chief product officer (CPO).
Karlsten joins the Malta-based firm’s management team from games developer Toca Boca, and he was also previously CEO of digital agency Avantime and a product specialist at Google.
“It is extremely exciting to join Catena Media in the midst of such an expansive phase,” Karlsten said.
“To continue building on the platforms created thus far is incredibly motivating and I look forward to using my experience to raise the standard of the product portfolio even higher,” he added.
Las Vegas Sands names Patrick Dumont CFO
Las Vegas Sands has promoted its senior vice president of finance and strategy, Patrick Dumont, to the role of chief financial officer (CFO).
Dumont has informally held a number of CFO duties since the departure of the company’s former finance chief, Kenneth Kay, in 2013.
“Patrick has been providing strong leadership to the financial function and handling the principal duties of the CFO role very effectively for some time,” Las Vegas Sands chairman and chief executive officer, Sheldon Adelson, said.
“We are extremely pleased to formally appoint him to this role, and we look forward to his contributions in the years ahead,” Adelson continued.