Betfair public affairs director leaves after one year in charge
Matt Lambert leaves to join shale gas exploration company Cuadrilla and will not be replaced, eGaming Review understands.
Betfair’s director of public affairs has left the business to join shale gas exploration company Cuadrilla and will not be replaced, eGaming Review can confirm.
Matt Lambert joined the operator just over a year ago in January 2012 from Microsoft UK where he was director of corporate affairs and citizenship responsible for the company’s government and political relations, community affairs and environmental practice.
eGR has learned that as part of the on-going overall restructure of the company Betfair will not replace Lambert and instead divide his duties across both Martin Cruddace, group director of legal and corporate affairs and Susannah Gill, head of public affairs for the UK and Ireland.
Commenting on his appointment last January Lambert said: “Betfair is at a hugely exciting point in its future development, with the global regulatory landscape being of real strategic importance to its business. I look forward to working with Betfair’s skilled teams in Europe and other jurisdictions to ensure that the discussions taking place concerning regulation are understood by all stakeholders.”
At the time Cruddace said that Betfair was at the “forefront of many of the conversations taking place that are aimed at creating a competitive and viable regulated gaming industry and Matt’s experience will be crucial in enabling us to build on this”.
The business has undergone a series of drastic strategic and personnel changes since new CEO Breon Corcoran’s arrival in August last year with a new executive management team in place, a shift in business model to purely regulated and regulating markets as well as a firm focus on its new sportsbook which launched earlier this year. Last Friday eGR discovered the firm is in the process of making several hundred people redundant with a large number of staff undergoing a statutory consultation period of 90 days.
Lambert has joined Cuadrilla in the new role of government and public affairs director, reporting to chief executive Francis Egan, according to PR Week.
Cuadrilla has a controversial past hitting the headlines for the wrong reasons in in 2011 when two minor earthquakes in Lancashire were linked to its exploration activity. Operations were suspended pending a review, however two months ago the government announced exploration could resume subject to tougher controls.
A Betfair spokeswoman told eGR “Matt received a fantastic opportunity” and that the company “wishes him all the best for the future”.