Exclusive: Andy Wright leading candidate to join Ladbrokes as head of trading

Ladbrokes is in the process of finalising terms with Andy Wright, Betclic Everest’s sportsbook director, to become its new head of trading following the dismissal of Jon Thompson in June, eGaming Review can exclusively reveal.

Wright, who has worked for three gaming and sportsbook operators in the last six years is known to have resigned from the troubled French operator after it reported losses of €90m last year.

A Ladbrokes spokesman told eGR the company was “close to appointing” Wright and that it was simply a matter of “agreeing contracts and a start date”.

Wright has had senior trading experience at Betclic Everest, Stan James and Blue Square, however within that time he has held six different job titles spending no more than a year in five out of six of these positions.

He is known to have beaten a number of candidates to the position including a senior member of Paddy Power’s Australian subsidiary Sportsbet.

Ladbrokes’ former head of trading Jon Thompson was dismissed in early June pending appeal. A Ladbrokes spokesman confirmed to eGR that its internal HR process had ended and that Thompson had been “sacked for gross misconduct for failures to follow company procedure”. The spokesman refused to go into any further details surrounding the matter suggesting only that the matter was “black and white” and was now closed.

eGR understands, however that Thompson, who was at Ladbrokes for 18 months, has until the end of this month to issue an unfair dismissal appeal and take the case to tribunal. It is currently unclear as to what course of action he will take.

Thompson joined Ladbrokes in February last year after leaving his role as global head of trading for Bodog where he started as trading director for Bodog Europe in July 2007. eGR understands that Wright was also in contention for the role at Bodog, however Thompson was the former US-facing operator’s choice at the time.

As trading director for Ladbrokes Thompson was responsible for trading, risk management and in-play betting across the online and retail platforms, and oversaw the introduction of margin management tools and the increased automation of the trading process.

Mark Fogarty, horse racing product manager, was also suspended shortly after Thomson, also for unknown reasons. Fogarty had been with the company for almost 20 years. It is currently unclear as to whether or not Fogarty has appealed his dismissal.

An analyst note from Simon French of Panmure Gordon at the time described Thompson’s dismissal as “clearly disappointing news” which “calls into question the structure of the business which moved away from a divisional approach to a competency- or discipline-based one some 12 months ago.”

Despite reporting solid group results Ladbrokes has seen online numbers decline rapidly in the last few years with yesterday’s interim results showing that its digital revenues have halved in just 12 months. Chief executive Richard Glynn has blamed this largely on delays in delivering technology including new sportsbook, trading and mobile platforms as well as a new website, all of which have been pushed back to an unknown date in the fourth quarter of this year and into 2013.

Glynn has also overseen three management restructures during his two-year tenure. This included yesterday’s announcement that former head of channels Nick Rust would now oversee its UK and Ireland P&L for both retail and online with IT director Mark Grimes given the unenviable task of overseeing technology delivery, an area that cost former director of product Richard Ames his job earlier this week.

Ames, who was one of the few senior members of staff left from the previous regime of former CEO Chris Bell joined the Ladbrokes in 2005 as managing director of UK and Irish retail. He was promoted to managing director of product as part of Glynn’s personnel reshuffle in a bid to double the company’s share price by 2015, nicknamed ‘Project Galvanise’.

—

Andy Wright, CV

Betclic Everest Group, sportsbook director

2011 ““ Present (1 year)

Betclic Everest Group, group trading director

June 2011 ““ August 2011 (3 months)

Stan James, managing director

January 2011 ““ June 2011 (6 months)

Stan James, head of sportsbook

March 2010 ““ February 2011 (1 year)

Blue Square, sportsbook director

January 2009 ““ February 2010 (1 year 2 months)

Blue Square, trading manager

August 2006 ““ February 2010 (3 years 7 months)

Uk Betting Plc, head of trading and customer services

August 2005 ““ August 2006 (1 year 1 month)

Spreadex, head of trading

January 1999 ““ January 2004 (5 years 1 month)