People news 19 December 2013
The latest people moves from the egaming industry in the last seven days (13 December to 19 December 2013)
Former Oddschecker MD Maggs joins bwin.party
Derren Maggs moves to Gibraltar-based operator as head of sports marketing after four-and-a-half years at odds comparison site
Former Oddschecker managing director Derren Maggs has been appointed as bwin.party’s head of sports marketing as the operator looks to boost its flagging sportsbook vertical.
Maggs joined the operator last month after having left the price comparison site in October. A spokesperson for bwin.party confirmed the appointment but refused to comment any further.
Before joining Sky-owned Oddschecker in June 2009, Maggs previously spent almost four years as head of customer marketing at Rank Interactive.
The appointment of Maggs will be seen as part of a wider strategy by bwin.party to improve the fortunes of its sportsbook, which posted a 10% year-on-year revenue decline in Q3 to 59.9m.
Former Tipp24 MD Brinck appointed new mybet CEO
Mybet has appointed former Tipp24 managing director Sven Ivo Brinck as its new long-term CEO, with CFO and interim CEO Monika Fiala leaving the company after just six weeks.
Brinck joined German online lottery firm Tipp24 in 2002 and held several positions before becoming the firm’s managing director in 2008, a role he held until 2012. More recently, Brinck held a business development consultancy position with the operator.
“We are delighted that in Sven Ivo Brinck we have attracted to the company a management board member who is firmly established in the online and gaming scene, and can also offer sound management experience,” Volker Heeg, supervisory board chairman at mybet, said.
Fiala has surrendered her office as finance director at the Schleswig-Holstein-based operator six weeks into a six-month long contract after originally joining the company to replace departing CFO Stefan Hanel.
Seven days in people news:
ARJEL president Vilotte resigns
The president of L’autorité de regulation des jeux en ligne (ARJEL) Jean-François Vilotte has announced his departure from the French regulator after more three years in the role.
Vilotte announced his resignation at a press conference on Wednesday and will officially step down from the role in January in order to pursue “other activities” in the private sector.
Vilotte was hired as president of the French regulator in May 2010 having previously worked as director general at the French Tennis Federation from 2007 to 2009 and also held a number of positions in the Ministry of Youth and Sports.
Bwin.party non-exec chairman to leave
Bwin.party has revealed that non-executive chairman Simon Duffy will not stand for re-election at the company’s next AGM in May 2014.
Duffy has served on the board for more than trhee years, overseeing the integration of bwin and PartyGaming merger in 2010. A formal search process to find his successor is underway.
“The Group has faced numerous challenges over the past three years, but most of them are now behind us and I am confident that, under the leadership of Norbert Teufelberger, bwin.party is well-placed to return to growth by capitalising on its strong market position, leading brands and proprietary technology,” Duffy said.