New BetVictor CEO to face German and structural challenges
Former BetVictor and bwin.party employees expect Andreas Meinrad to clear out the "dead wood"
BetVictor’s in-coming chief executive Andreas Meinrad will need to address the operator’s complex management structure and quickly appease Germany’s licensing authorities, according to former employees of the firm.
Speaking to eGaming Review following yesterday’s appointment of former bwin.party chief commercial officer Meinrad, a number of ex-BetVictor and bwin.party staffers detailed the task at hand for Michael Carlton’s successor.
And on top of the agenda is an apparent need to simplify a management structure that has been described as “convoluted” and “a mess” due to unnecessary layers of hierarchy and bureaucracy.
“The challenges management-wise are simple – the structure,” said one former BetVictor staffer.
“There is still no one line in the company between the departments and there are 20 years of dust where old men were deciding about new technology and businesses,” he added.
The right man
This issue could result in a clearing of the decks and a former bwin.party employee told eGR that Meinrad would have no issue in wielding the axe.
“I wouldn’t call him a hatchet man as he is actually a very nice guy but if he needs to get the hatchet out he won’t be afraid to use it,” he said. “Meinrad played a huge role in the integration of the bwin and PartyGaming businesses when many people left.
“Despite that he had a good rapport with staff and was highly respected – he certainly knows his stuff so I expect him to do a good job at BetVictor,” he added.
According to another former BetVictor employee Meinrad will have an “excellent product” and “good brand” to work with but will need to upgrade an IT system that has so far prevented the firm from entering heavily regulated markets such as Italy.
“They have an excellent gaming product, but things like licence requirements are challenging the IT,” he said.
“The basic product itself is fantastic and I will always stick to this, but there are long tracks to run to get the usability of the site on the level they need, but this challenge is well known across the business,” he added.
German focus
Another important issue for the firm will be that of Germany and the fact that the operator failed in its bid to obtain one of the 20 sports betting licences recently handed out by the country.
BetVictor is said to be exploring all legal avenues in a bid to see the much maligned licensing process scrapped and restarted and one former BetVictor employee said Meinrad’s ability to speak German and his knowledge of the German market would have been factors in his appointment.
“I think the German licence is a very important task and the fact that they picked someone from bwin, and someone that is a native German speaker, is a clear sign of what they are looking for,” he said.
Meinrad is sue to start his new role on 1 February with his appointment having brought to an end a six-month search for a new CEO after his predecessor Carlton left the firm when Michael Tabor assumed full control of the business in May.
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