Exclusive: Andy Wright confirmed as Ladbrokes trading director

Former Betclic Everest sportsbook director Andy Wright has been confirmed as Ladbrokes’ new trading director, eGaming Review can exclusively reveal.

Wright, who will report directly to chief executive Richard Glynn when he takes up his role next month, had been in talks with the operator since last month and is tasked with driving the London-listed company’s ongoing trading improvement programme.

He had spent little over a year with Betclic Everest, joining the French operator in June 2011, initially as group trading director before taking over as sportsbook director in August last year. Previously he spent more than a year at Stan James including a six-month spell as managing director.

His appointment comes three months after former head of trading Jon Thompson was dismissed for alleged “gross misconduct for failures to follow company procedure” having served less than two years in the role.

Meanwhile, Ladbrokes has also appointed Oddschecker founder Tony Robinson as its new trading strategy director, a newly-created role within the company. He will take up the role with immediate effect.

Robinson’s arrival is part of a deeper-reaching agreement with his trading technology firm Heron Solutions, which will see Lads and Heron work alongside each other to develop trading technology innovations. Heron already works with a number of other operators, including Coral, BetVictor and Stan James, however a Ladbrokes spokesman explained that following Robinson’s appointment the majority of Heron’s resources will be devoted to Ladbrokes.

Robinson said of his arrival: “My role will be to drive innovation in the trading function and having already spent some months at Ladbrokes as a consultant I’m pleased to be taking a permanent role at what is an exciting time for the company in its reinvigoration programme.”

Wright and Robinson have previously worked together at both Stan James and Blue Square. Their appointments follow a reshuffle from Glynn – the third in two years – which saw head of product Richard Ames dismissed in July. Over the course of the last month, responsibility for trading lay with Glynn himself as the operator prepared to finalise the new appointments.

There is no indication whether the appointments of the Heron deal will have any impact on Ladbrokes’ discussions with Betdaq over either an acquisition or a supplier deal. A spokesman for the operator told eGR: “We have an ongoing relationship [with Betdaq] and continue to review potential future partnerships.”