With comings and goings commonplace across the industry, the Dutch and Swedish regulators, as well as GamCare, are among those to have bolstered their teams with key hires.
Star Entertainment Group
Scott Wharton has triggered his resignation from a role of Chief Executive Officer of The Star Sydney and Group Head of Transformation at beleaguered Australian group Star Entertainment.
This brings an end to a short tenure, with Wharton appointed in July 2022, after Wharton signalled an intention to transition executive responsibilities after accepting another role.
Robbie Cooke, The Star’s CEO and Managing Director Robbie Cooke said a restructure would follow Wharton’s resignation, with two new appointments to be made.
“We are well positioned to announce shortly Scott’s successor as CEO for The Star Sydney,” he noted. “Separately I am delighted to announce Mrs Nicola Burke, our current General Manager Transformation Office, has agreed to accept the Chief Transformation Officer role.
“I want to thank Scott for his valuable contribution, particularly in respect of our remediation actions. We are committed to winning back trust and confidence from the community and the work Scott has led since his appointment last July has laid incredibly important foundations.
“We still have a lot of work ahead, but the board and the management team have an unwavering focus on proving our suitability to hold casino licences in NSW and Queensland.”
GamCare
Problem gambling treatment and support charity GamCare has announced two appointments to expand its board of trustees.
This has seen the group name Lester Posner, the current Head of Communications for the Health & Safety Executive, as a new board member and trustee, with GamCare also appointing Jas Bindarh to its board.
Margot Daly, Chair of the GamCare Board, said: “I am delighted with Lester and Jas’ appointments to the Board as Trustees.
“They both bring a wealth of experience from their respective fields, and I’m sure they will be instrumental in helping us continue to raise the profile of gambling support in the UK. I look forward to working with them both.”
Spelinspektionen
Spelinspektionen, Sweden’s gambling regulator, will maintain the current size of its seven-member board of governance.
The decision has been approved by Sweden’s Centre-Right Alliance government – a coalition formed by the four parties of the Swedish Moderates, Christian Democrats, Liberal Party, and Centre Party. The only change will see long-serving counsellor Per Håkansson appointed as Chair.
Director General Camilla Rosenberg maintains a seat on the board, having renewed her leadership tenure for a further year. Rosenberg has served as Director General of Swedish gambling since 2017, overseeing the transformation from Lotteriinspektionen to Spelinspektionen as part of Sweden’s relaunch of its gambling market in 2019.
Kansspelautoriteit
Anita Vegter has officially taken up the reigns as Chair of the Kansspelautoriteit‘s advisory board after being named as the successor to Ronald Prins in February.
Vegter is a senior judge at the Amsterdam District Court, before which she occupied the position of Director-General of the Administration of Justice and Law Enforcement at the Ministry of Justice and Security.
The Ksa advisory board, which also welcomed the addition of Haiko van der Voort, has existed since 2014 and usually meets four times a year.
René Jansen, Chair of the Ksa, commented: “We are very pleased with this innovation and we consider ourselves very fortunate to have an advisory board in which knowledge is present in so many areas within the context of our tasks. I would like to express my gratitude to our outgoing members for their valuable contributions.”
EveryMatrix has confirmed the appointment of Martin Clarke as Chief Product Officer of its sports betting technology unit OddsMatrix.
Clarke is a former Paddy Power Betfair executive who has helped develop features such as Cash Out, Fast Markets, Odds Boost and Bet Builder.
Most recently, he rebuilt the B2B platform of Metric Gaming, bolstering its end-to-end horseracing, soccer and US sports markets.
Ebbe Groes, CEO of EveryMatrix, said: “I’m thrilled that someone of Martin’s calibre and track-record has joined OddsMatrix. He is a sports product superstar and has worked on some of the most memorable and game-changing betting features of the last decade.”
“Martin’s arrival proves we are on the right path to accelerate our growth and success as we continue to attract major tier-one operators, providing them with industry-leading software and services that take their brands to the next dimension.”
