Playtech appoints new head of bingo
Gary Keaney replaces Rhys Owen who has left to join location-based lottery GeoLotto
Playtech has promoted Gary Keaney to the role of head of bingo following the departure of Rhys Owen, eGaming Review has learned.
Owen had headed-up Playtech’s bingo team for more than four years after joining as part of the company’s 2010 acquisition of bingo product development firm Virtue Fusion, where he was head of product for nearly two years.
eGR understands Owen left his role at the Israeli egaming provider before Christmas and has since joined location-based UK lottery GeoLotto.
The newly-appointed head of bingo Gary Keaney originally joined Playtech in 2009 as an account manager before taking up the role of senior account manager/operations in October 2012.
Previously he was bingo product manager at Ladbrokes for nearly one year after previously working in the land-based bingo sector for Gala Bingo.
“The appointment of Gary as head of bingo was an easy choice, he has a plethora of bingo experience and has worked with some of the biggest names in the industry as well as being a veteran with Virtue Fusion and Playtech,” Dan Phillips, Virtue Fusion COO, said.
“Gary will be central to driving us forward via product and platform innovation.”
The news of Keaney’s appointment follows the release of Playtech’s full-year 2013 results last month which showed the supplier had bucked bingo’s current downward trend with 3% growth in the vertical.
Bingo revenues for the year reached 18m following the launch of new mobile products as the company recorded a 26% year-on-year rise in profits to 148.3m and a 16% increase in revenues to 367.2m.