Bally appoints new chief executive
Ramesh Srinivasan replaces Richard Haddrill as CEO of gaming technology supplier.
Bally Technologies has announced that Richard Haddrill will leave his role as CEO of the company to be replaced by current president and chief operating officer Ramesh Srinivasan.
Haddrill (pictured) leaves his post after eight years, and will become chairman of the company’s board, with the change-over to take place on 31 December. Bally’s current chairman Kevin Verner will become lead independent director, freeing up his current position.
“Ramesh and I have been great business partners over the past 13 years across two companies and these changes reflect the continued natural evolution of our roles and responsibilities,” Haddrill said of the reshuffle. “We have built a deep group of leaders at Bally and Ramesh has proven his ability to lead the team.”
Srinivasan joined Bally in 2005 as executive vice president of systems, overseeing the growth of the supplier’s systems business, before he was promoted to president and COO in March 2011. Previously he worked alongside Haddrill for software supplier Manhattan Associates.
The new CEO said he was “honored” to have taken on the role at what he described as “an exciting time in [the] company’s 80-year history”.
“We are on a very good track for the coming years. I am very enthusiastic about the many opportunities I see to serve existing customers, expand our customer base, continue to provide growth opportunities for our people and increase shareholder value,” Srinivasan added.
After receiving a Nevada online poker licence in June this year, Bally has seen a number of operators sign up to its iGaming Platform, which was acquired from Chiligaming in February. The operators which have signed up to the platform include Nevada licensees Golden Nugget and American Casino and Entertainment Properties and Mohegan Sun Casinos, which has venues in Pennsylvania and Conneticut.
Just yesterday the company announced a partial revival of its B2B partnership with the newly-rebranded SHFL Entertainment, which will see SHFL’s table games added to the iGaming Platform. The deal was originally agreed in June, but described as “no longer in effect” after the company formerly known as Shuffle Master pulled out of its agreement to buy the Ongame poker network from bwin.party.
Meanwhile in October the company posted its fifth consecutive quarter of year-on-year earnings growth, with record Q1 revenues of US$235m up 21% on the first quarter of 2011.