With comings and goings commonplace across the industry, PENN Entertainment, Global Gaming Women and SIS are among those to have seen changes to their teams this week.
PENN Entertainment
PENN Entertainment has confirmed that it will soon be undergoing a leadership change, with theScore’s founding family – John Levy, Benjie Levy, Aubrey Levy and Noah Levy – stepping down from their respective roles.
John will depart from PENN in mid-February, followed by Benjie, Aubrey and Noah in April. In addition, the company also stated that it is in the final stages of its search for a new Head of Interactive.
“This transition plan comes at a natural inflexion point, with the migration to our proprietary technology platform complete, theScore’s media and betting business delivering record results, and ESPN BET off to a strong start,” said Jay Snowden, CEO and President of PENN Entertainment.
“The Levys are a family of successful entrepreneurs and are truly pioneers in the sports media and gaming industry. I am very proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish with them, including the development of an extremely deep and talented bench at PENN Interactive.
“With this experienced, best-in-class team firmly in place, we are well prepared for this to be a seamless transition and to continue growing our position as a leader in online gaming and sports media.”
In October 2021, PENN acquired Score Media and Gaming, integrating theScore with PENN Interactive. Benjie became Head of Interactive and John assumed the position of Executive Chairman of theScore.
Benjie Levy commented: “Working at PENN has been extremely rewarding and we want to thank Jay, Todd George and the entire PENN team for their partnership and support as we brought these two organisations together to execute on our uniquely integrated media and betting strategy.
“Our focus on creating industry-leading technology and products has been second only to our efforts in building a world-class team and fostering a special place to work. We could not be more proud of this team and what we have accomplished together, and we look forward to watching as they continue to build upon the successful foundation we established at theScore.”
John Levy added: “The enduring success of theScore is due to the passionate and committed team that helped launch, develop and innovate our products to provide the best possible fan experience.
“Empowering fans with a seamlessly integrated media and betting experience has been core to our mission since day one. That strategy has led to the success of theScore and theScore Bet in Ontario and ESPN BET in the US and will continue to differentiate this online gaming business going forward.”
Global Gaming Women
Global Gaming Women has appointed Lauren Bates to President of the Board of Directors.
A longtime senior executive in the industry, Bates most recently served as GGW’s first Vice President, a role now held by Siobhan Lane, Light & Wonder‘s EVP & Group CEO of Gaming.
Replacing Lane as the non-profit’s second VP is Brandi Ellis, SVP of VIP Marketing at Caesars Entertainment. All these appointments went into effect on January 1, 2024, and run until 2026.
Bates replaces outgoing GGW President and current Boyd Gaming Corporation SVP of Legal Operations and Regulatory Compliance Cassie Stratford, who departs following the completion of her two-year term.
“Lauren’s demonstrated work ethic and determination has had a huge impact in promoting the recent growth and success of Global Gaming Women, which I’m looking forward to seeing continued under her leadership as President,” stated Stratford.
“It has been incredibly rewarding to work with so many to advance GGW’s vision for the betterment of our industry, and thanks to the support of our sponsors and community, this new leadership team will bring their incredible energy to bring our mission to new levels in the years to come.”
GGW has also appointed Samantha Huff-Schlueter, Senior Manager – Assurance Services Group at RubinBrown LLP, as Treasurer; Kate White, Vice President of Intelligence & IT Program Management at PENN Entertainment, as Secretary; and Kelci Binau, Attorney at McDonald Carano, as General Counsel.
In addition, the non-profit has also approved the following new members to its board of directors for 2024-26: Karin Bernkopf, Senior Director of Marketing and Gaming at IGT; Adi Kasunic, Vice President of Human Resources at The Venetian Resort Las Vegas; Tashina Lazcano, Director of Marketing & Communications at Konami Gaming; Cortney Luvera, Senior Manager at The Coca-Cola Company; Suzanne Trout, EVP & CMO at Cordish Gaming Group; and Julie Woodruff, Vice President of Finance at Seminole Casino Hotel Immokalee and Seminole Brighton Casino.
Bates added: “Since 2011, the focus of Global Gaming Women has been to support, inspire, and influence the development of women in gaming. Today, every member of GGW’s Board of Directors is centred on that same mission.
“With the investment, success, and geographic expansion achieved in the last two years by outgoing president Cassie Stratford, GGW has a solid foundation for even greater growth, which I aim to accomplish.”
SIS
SIS has hired Joel Anyaegbu as Commercial Manager – West Africa to oversee the supplier’s commercial development and international growth in the region.
Based in Nigeria, Anyaegbu brings a wealth of industry experience to SIS, including business operations and sales knowledge having most recently worked as Regional Manager for betBonanza.
Joe Andrews, Head of Sales – Africa at SIS, said: “Joel’s proven commercial acumen within the African market will be a real asset to our plans of continued international expansion through the delivery of a set of products that will resonate with players.
“As well as our live numbers draws, our round-the-clock racing offering and end-to-end Competitive Gaming solution offer additional value for operators in Africa as significant drivers of revenue. We know that the bettors in the region are football mad and our esoccer product in particular will be a huge success.”
Anyaegbu will be tasked with promoting SIS’s horse and greyhound racing offering to online and retail operators, in addition to the company’s events-based sports simulation product Competitive Gaming and range of 49’s live numbers draws.
“The progress that SIS continues to make internationally is impressive, and I can’t wait to bring my industry knowledge to the table as the new Commercial Manager for West Africa,” added Anyaegbu.
“Recent content deals have demonstrated the company’s commitment to commercial expansion in regions where players have a proven appetite for its content. I look forward to furthering that progress.”
Continent 8 Technologies
Continent 8 Technologies has strengthened its cloud team with the addition of Matteo Gabrielli as Senior Technical Solutions Architect.
An Amazon Web Services specialist, Gabrielli joins Continent 8 directly from AWS where he was a Senior Solutions Architect for Digital Native Businesses.
Over a four-and-a-half-year period at AWS, Gabrielli held several positions, supporting a variety of betting and gaming businesses with technical guidance to help them innovate and build cloud solutions on AWS.
Edward O’Connor, Chief Technology Officer at Continent 8 Technologies, said: “Matteo is a very important hire as we continue to enhance our cloud offering to better support our customers with their hybrid and public cloud strategy.
“Matteo has a great deal of customer-facing solutions experience. That we can bring in someone as experienced and talented as Matteo demonstrates our commitment to expanding our cloud business and collaboration with AWS as an advanced partner.
“Our customers already trust us with the deployment and management of their AWS Outpost solutions and they leverage extensive network peering with AWS; we’re going to offer customers so much more in 2024 and our new team members will play a big role in that.”
At Continent 8, Gabrielli will be tasked with supporting and maintaining customer relationships by helping to deliver AWS products and services, as well as developing the cloud product roadmap for the company’s customer base.
Gabrielli added: “I am excited to support Continent 8’s incredible customer base in maximising the potential of the cloud.
“Continent 8 has built a great team of cloud specialists and I’m thrilled to be working alongside some truly talented people as we continue to enhance our offering and strengthen our relationship with customers by supporting them on their cloud journey.”
