Unibet head of poker to leave for Relax Gaming
Martin Stålros to join Unibet's poker software provider as chief operating officer after more than two years at the operator
Unibet’s head of poker Martin Stålros is to leave the egaming operator to join its poker software supplier Relax Gaming as chief operating officer (COO), eGaming Review can reveal.
A Unibet spokesperson confirmed that Stålros will be leaving the operator at the end of the year and eGR understands he will join the Estonia-based supplier early next year as its newly created COO.
During his time at Unibet, Stålros oversaw the launch of the operator’s new standalone poker product after leaving Microgaming’s MPN Network in favour of a casual player-focused client in partnership with Relax Gaming.
Stålros joined the operator in August 2012 as business development manager before taking up his most recent role as head of firm’s poker operations last year to replace Steve Cutler.
He previously worked at UK bookmaker Ladbrokes for two years where he held roles including marketing executive and customer development manager for its poker business.
Unibet has already begun a formal search for a new head of poker who will be based out of Unibet’s UK office in Wimbledon and, managing a team of five, will report directly to the company’s head of gaming Daniel Eskola.
Yesterday the operator revealed poker revenues had fallen 31% year-on-year in Q3 2014 to £2m, down from £2.9m in the same period last year, but CEO Henrik Tjärnström said the business was showing significant signs of improvement.
“It was trending in the wrong direction anyway and it was about seeing what we could achieve as staying with the status quo was not a solution either,” he told eGR.
“We’re very happy with the product and the feedback it’s been getting,” Tjärnström added. “We knew it would lead to a drop of numbers but we’ve stopped the drain out of the system and we can now actually acquire players and cross-sell them into other products which wasn’t possible over the last few years.”