People news 15 August 2013
The latest people moves from the egaming industry in the last seven days (9 August to 15 August 2013)
Three senior exits at Gaming Media Group
CEO and founder Crispin Nieboer, COO Grant Williams and finance director Shaun Barron to step-down from operator
Gaming Media Group (GMG) has announced changes to its management structure following the departure of three board members.
CEO and founder Crispin Nieboer has left the company to join UK bookmaker William Hill. Nieboer will serve as a consultant under Hills head of strategy and corporate development Robin Chhabra, with his focus set to be on the operator’s US growth strategy and European opportunities.
Nieboer will be replaced by Colin McCreadie, who joined the Danish-licensed operator in 2010 has been serving as the group’s poker and casino business manager for the previous two years.
COO Grant Williams will leave the company at the end of September to study an MBA at Imperial College London, but a successor has yet to be named.
All three will remain with GMG as non-executive directors, the company said in a statement.
Seven days in people news:
New head of Bulgarian gambling body appointed
Ognemir Mitev has been named chair of Bulgaria’s State Commission for Gambling, just weeks after the regulatory body drew up a blacklist of unlicensed operators.
Bulgaria’s minister of finance Petar Chobanov announced the appointment yesterday which will see Mitev replace Ivan Enicherov as head of the Commission. Enicherov held the position since April after replacing Kaloyan Krastev who led the regulator for three years.
The news of Mitev’s appointment comes after the Commission drew up a blacklist of 20 unlicensed gaming sites in June containing operators including Bet365, Betfair and Ladbrokes. The regulatory body later announced the addition of 28 new domains including those operated by William Hill and PokerStars.
The blacklist was created following the Bulgarian parliament passing a mandate granting the Commission the power to order internet service providers to block unlicensed sites.
Zynga plans management shake-up
Zynga has announced an extensive management overhaul with three senior executives including the firm’s COO set to leave the firm as part of a larger company restructuring.
Don Mattrick, who replaced Mark Pincus as CEO last month, said on a company blog yesterday that COO David Ko, chief people officer Colleen McCreary and chief technology officer Cadir Lee will leave the social gaming company.
As part of the shake-up, leaders from all areas of the social gaming company will report directly to Mattrick who said he believes the new structure will help the firm to grow after a difficult period.
“With the [restructuring] in place, I believe that we will have the best chance to grow, build a world class executive team and culture, establish cadence and really become committed to important priorities and opportunities for our long term success,” he said.