With comings and goings commonplace across the industry, Soft2Bet, Pariplay and SciPlay have moved to bolster their teams with key hires.
Future Anthem
Matt Nichols has departed Churchill Downs to take up the newly created role of General Manager of the Americas at Future Anthem.
In the position, he will be responsible for leading the group’s business and building an on-the-ground team in the Americas as Future Anthem looks to maintain a growth strategy in the region that follows a recent multi-million-dollar series A financing round.
After first joining Churchill Downs in 2018, Nichols was most recently Senior Director of Corporate Development where working on numerous land-based gaming projects, in addition to strategy for the TwinSpires B2B online horse racing product.
“I am beyond thrilled to join the Future Anthem team to lead their growth into the Americas’ online gaming markets,” said Nichols.
“Leigh has identified a compelling market gap, and his first-class team is building industry-best AI and data products that add tremendous value to operators and game studios by personalising player experiences across sports betting and casino.”
Soft2Bet
Former William Hill International Executive Ed Clark will join Soft2Bet as the company’s Head of Sportsbook.
In his new role, Clark will spearhead Soft2Bet’s brand development whilst also taking charge of the solution provider’s sportsbook strategies as it continues to expand into new markets.
Uri Poliavich, CEO of Soft2Bet, noted: “We believe this appointment will further strengthen our Sports Department and expand the Group’s reach in numerous emerging markets.
“We are excited for Ed Clark to join the Group and are looking forward to a successful collaboration.”
Aristocrat
Former Chief Creative Officer at Zynga Joe Kaminkow, has taken on an expanded position at Aristocrat Gaming after becoming chief Innovation Officer.
In this role, he will be tasked with helping to drive innovation across the enterprise, including in new gaming products and mobile game genres, while further enhancing group-wide capabilities.
The appointment extends Kaminkow’s long association with Aristocrat Gaming, dating back to his initial appointment as SVP of Game Development in 2013.
Kaminkow will report to the Chief Product Officer of Aristocrat Gaming, Matt Primmer, while working with teams across Aristocrat Gaming, Pixel United, and Anaxi.
“We are delighted that someone of Joe’s caliber will be working full-time across the company to champion innovation, helping us to further penetrate growth opportunities and develop even more outstanding talent within our business,” explained Hector Fernandez, CEO of Aristocrat Gaming.
“As a valued colleague and contributor to our success for almost a decade, Joe’s brilliance and creativity is well-known to us at Aristocrat Gaming and across the industry. In this newly dedicated role, we look forward to Joe’s focused efforts to help our teams take their product portfolios to the next level.”
Pariplay
NeoGames’ Pariplay subsidiary has disclosed the promotion of Linda Sliede to Head of Account Management, where she will report to Enrico Bradamante, Chief Commercial Officer.
After previously working for Playtech Live in both the operations and commercial side of the business, Sliede joined the aggregator and content provider in November 2021 as an Account Manager.
This appointment, said Pariplay, is intended to further boost the firm’s ongoing expansion strategy as the supplier looks to continue growing in regulated markets across the globe.
“I’m delighted to have been able to promote Linda as I am a very strong believer in growing and developing people internally,” noted Bradamante.
“At Pariplay we have a very strong team of Account Managers who are extremely customer-focused. I look forward to Linda’s contributing further to help Pariplay continue to push the boundaries in the industry.”
SciPlay
SciPlay has confirmed the appointment of Jim Bombassei as Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Secretary, which will become effective as of December 1, 2022.
In the position, the current Senior Vice President of Investor Relations for Light & Wonder will oversee the company’s financial operations and partner with the leadership team and business units on strategy and driving growth and value creation.
“SciPlay’s objective is to become the number one mobile gaming company in the world, and we are very excited to have Jim on board as we execute on our vision and continue to grow and expand,” said Josh Wilson, CEO, SciPlay.
“Jim is an accomplished and strategic financial executive with extensive global experience and a demonstrated track record of success across multiple industries.
“He brings a broad perspective to SciPlay with his keen understanding of the investment community, capital markets and value creation. As we advance on our strategy, Jim is the right leader for SciPlay’s finance organisation.”
