Betfair UK MD leaves as "massive restructure" begins
Peter Marcus's exit, combined with Germany and underperforming markets withdrawals, part of company-wide restructure - number of other redundancies and market closures will soon be announced eGR learns.
Betfair’s UK managing director, Peter Marcus, responsible for more than 50% of the exchange’s overall revenue, has left the business with immediate effect as newly installed chief executive Breon Corcoran continues to trim the size of the operation and focus on regulated markets.
eGaming Review has learned that Marcus’s exit, combined with the news last week that the exchange has withdrawn from Germany as well as a number of other underperforming unregulated grey markets, is part of an ongoing restructure of the entire business and that a number of other redundancies and market closures will soon be announced.
eGR also understands that Marcus’s role will no longer exist in its current form and is likely to be folded into another executive’s job description.
A source close to the company told eGR that a “massive restructure” is underway, one that has also seen a number of regional managers leave the business as Cocoran and his close advisers work their way through the company and refocus on regulated markets, reducing “wastage” within the company including cutting duplicate roles, and on integrating its new sportsbook that it hopes will continue to drive new acquisitions.
On Friday eGR revealed that Betfair has made around 50 redundancies across help desk and customer service staff as it reduces some of its language options in “less attractive” markets. Customers in a number of unspecified territories in Asia, the Nordics and Eastern Europe were told 10 days ago that their respective language options would close down permanently after the exchange operator carried out a recent market audit.
Marcus (pictured), who is on gardening leave until the beginning of 2013, had only been in his position for 14 months, joining in September last year following an 11 month stint as Betclic Everest Group’s chief strategy officer on a long-term consultancy basis. He replaced Lee Cowles who himself had only been in the same position for just under two years.
Previous to that role Marcus was COO at William Hill Online between July 2008 and January 2010 playing a part in the Playtech-William Hill joint venture.
Speaking to eGR Marcus said he was “very proud” to have achieved so much in his short time at the company and that he was disappointed to leave at such a crucial stage in the company’s 11 year history. Among Marcus’s achievements was the company’s change in direction marketing and advertising that has seen significant growth in the number of new customers.
Its “Don’t settle for less” value campaign, seven-figure casino advertising campaign entitled “Huge”, which the operator described this September as its “biggest ever” investment in casino TV marketing, and more recently its “Cash out” campaign based on its cash out functionality allowing bettors to lock in a portion of their winnings, were all driven by the former UK director and his teams.