Business
appointments corporate
Bookmaker Coral has appointed Mark Chambers as its new finance director, a position he held at the firm
before leaving to join Giles Insurance Brokers in 2008. Coral CEO Andy Hornby commented: “I am delighted to welcome Mark back to Coral, his knowledge of the busi- ness will make him a fantastic addition to the executive team. I would also like to say a huge and sincere thank you to Christoph Majeske, who has been supporting us whilst we were recruiting for a new FD.”
The Remote Gambling Association (RGA), the largest
trade association for remote gambling operators in the world, has appointed Sue Rossiter as director of projects and policy. Rossiter was previously interim principal officer at the Gordon Moody Association, deputy chief executive at coin-op trade association BACTA and head of policy at the Gambling Commission. Rossiter said she was very pleased to be joining the RGA: “It has an excel- lent reputation among the industry and with regulators and I am looking forward to meeting and working with its members.”
The Rank Group has appointed former Stanley Leisure
finance director Colin Child to the board as a non- executive director. He will also join Rank’s audit and finance committees. Rank’s chairman and chief execu- tive Ian Burke was delighted at Child’s appointment: “He brings considerable experience gained within large multi-national businesses operating in a wide range of sectors, including casino gaming.”
Fintan Drury, non-executive director and formerly chair-
man of Paddy Power plc from May 2003 to December 2008, has retired from the bookmaker’s board after more than nine years of service. Chairman Nigel Northridge said: “On behalf of the board, I would like to thank Fintan for his significant contribution to the development and success of Paddy Power plc and for his sound guidance and support to the company over many years.”
Following the management buyout of eCOGRA earlier in
the year, it has been decided to restructure and stream- line the Board to reflect the company’s current ownership. As a result non-executive directors Michael Hirst OBE, Bill Galston OBE and Frank Catania have left and the new board will be comprised of CEO Andrew Beveridge and Tex Rees, who have been part of the organisation’s management team since 2003. Beveridge said: “I am very grateful to Michael, Bill and Frank for their enor- mous contribution in helping to establish eCOGRA as a pre-eminent independent remote gambling standards body and testing agency and steering the company to its new found status.”
ANDREW BEVERIDGE Per Eriksson is to join supplier Net Entertainment as
CEO on 1 March with Björn Krantz remaining as acting CEO until then. Chairman of the Board, Vigo Carlund commented: “Per’s well documented leadership skills and genuine IT and computer skills make a good founda- tion to Net Entertainment’s needs.” Eriksson added: “I look forward to the assignment, to work in an industry that faces exciting challenges and strong growth. Net Entertainment is a quality company with good prospects.”
Software developer OpenBet has recruited Amanda
Bicknell as sales director. Previously at Microsoft, Bicknell brings considerable experience to the role of sales director and will have commercial responsibility for OpenBet’s existing sportsbook and casino customers. She commented: “Relationships are an essential part of any partnership and OpenBet under- stands the importance of managing theirs to ensure that everyone successfully achieves their goals.”
AMANDA BICKNELL 66 BettingBusinessInteractive • JANUARY 2012
THE NUMBER OF BETS COMING THROUGH BETFAIR’S MOBILE PLATFORM HAS DOUBLED
Mobile bets double as Betfair sees profit increase
A long term technology investment plan has seen Betfair’s mobile division start to take off with a new, faster website on the horizon.
INTERIM B
etting exchange Betfair has reported a 10 per cent drop in group reported
revenue for the first half of the year to £191.3m, however, profit after tax has shot up 156 per cent to £17.4m over the same period. Betfair’s new mobile prod- ucts have driven growth: doubling the number of bets to 16.2m and increasing rev- enues by 88 per cent to £9.1m in the six month period ending 31 October 2011. The figures from the mobile plat- form indicate the firm’s three year investment in technol- ogy is bearing fruit and the company is due to launch a new website with much improved speed, reliability and search functionality. Outgoing Betfair chief executive David Yu was pleased with performance in the first half of the year, which provided record underlying revenues and profits. “After a solid first quarter, we delivered a strong second quarter with Core Betfair revenues up 12 per cent. These results were driven by an excellent exchange performance fol- lowing a very positive start to the football season and improved monetisation of activity,” he said. Yu added that mobile betting has continued to grow strongly in the first half: “We have continued to make progress in the third quarter, with 41 per cent of UK Exchange customers placing a mobile bet in November, driving mobile revenue to around 9 per cent of exchange revenue. We are continuing to focus our investment in the product
and will shortly be introduc- ing mobile gaming as well as further updates to our exist- ing mobile/sports betting applications, leaving us well placed to deliver further growth from this important channel.”
Betfair said its mobile strategy has been to offer its exchange across a wide range of languages and mobile platforms (including native apps for iPhone, iPad, Android and Blackberry, alongside our Mobile Web App), and to refresh these products frequently. The firm has seen that mobile usage leads to an increase in average revenue per user (ARPU) and also that mobile customers have lower than average churn rates. A sig- nificantly improved iPhone app launched in October has driven further increases in usage and ARPU.
Betfair said that activity on the exchange continues to be strong, with the total value of bets up 7 per cent in the first half and 11 per cent in the second quarter. The firm explained: “At the start of the financial year, we pri- oritised improving the mon- etisation of the Exchange and its ecosystem and we have made significant steps towards achieving this goal. We have provided more his- torical data, expert opinion and trading tools, such as ‘Cash Out’, to help make our customers ‘better bettors’. Cash Out allows customers to more easily lock in a profit or loss and 17 per cent of football customers used the tool in October. The tool will shortly be available on addi- tional markets and sports, as well as on our mobile products.”
Yu commented that the
firm’s technology invest- ment programme is starting to deliver a number of valu- able improvements for cus- tomers. “Our new site will be launched in the New Year and will bring faster page downloads, increased relia- bility and improved search functionality. In addition, this will reduce the on-going maintenance cost of the technology platform and allow a greater focus on product development, while also providing increased flexibility to meet new juris- dictional requirements as they arise.”
In trials, Betfair’s new website offers a significant speed advantage and is delivering average page download times of around three seconds compared with over 18 seconds on the old site. Better search func- tionality and site reliability also provide a much enhanced experience for customers and the updated site allows greater flexibil- ity to integrate content and tools, such as streamed video and Cash Out, to a wider range of pages. Betfair said that initial feedback from test groups has been overwhelmingly positive. Yu added that trading has continued in a positive vein: “We have maintained our positive momentum in the third quarter, with Core Betfair revenue up 13 per cent against the prior year. Whilst the economic envi- ronment remains uncertain, we expect to make further progress in the second half and remain comfortable with the outlook for the financial year.”
ANALYSIS
The announcement of an interim dividend of 3.2 pence per share will be of small comfort to Betfair investors, who have seen the exchange’s share price halve since its IPO last year. However, it is heading in the right direction and they will be hoping that Betfair’s new chiefs will be able to accelerate progress. Gerald Corbett, who has considerable City
experience having been a director of eleven public companies, four as chairman, has come in as deputy chairman while Stephen Morana has stepped in as interim chief executive, replacing David Yu, ahead of Breon Corcoran joining the group as CEO on 1 August 2012.
STEPHEN MORANA: BETFAIR’S NEW INTERIM CEO
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