Superbet’s James Curwen leaves for full-time B2B chief exec role

Superbet’s chief gaming officer James Curwen has left the operator to focus on the Gibraltar-based games development house he founded earlier this year with a former William Hill colleague.

Curwen left the operator last month after approximately a year in the role to work full-time as CEO of Golden Rock Studios, which he launched with Hills’ former head of gaming development William Mathieson.

EGR Intel can reveal Golden Rock Studios is to launch its first games in Q1 having recently struck exclusive deals with Microgaming and Quickfire, and obtained financial investment from Velo Partners-backed gaming accelerator RNG Foundry.

“Golden Rock is exactly the type of team we are excited about,” Evan Hoff, director of Velo Partners, told EGR.

“They have strong pedigree and experience in regulated markets such as the UK and will produce premium, market-relevant content. We look forward to supporting them in their growth”.

Golden Rock Studios, which is also backed financially by Superbet, has offices in both Gibraltar and London and said it expects to release new games every four-to-six weeks following the initial launch.

RNG Foundry program director Mark McGinley added: “Our objective is to source and invest in highly ambitious, talented and creative game studios.

“Golden Rock embodies all those key principles and joins RNG as a flagship studio and one we hold in high regard. Will Mathieson and his team emerged out of a tier-1 UK betting company and we foresee a very bright future for Golden Rock”.

Curwen’s decision to focus full-time on the newly launched online slots and table games developer comes after Superbet recently decided to downsize its Gibraltar operation to focus on its core Central and Eastern European markets.

In recent months, Superbet has seen a number of personnel changes, including the departures of group director of ecommerce Jamie Hart and Gibraltar MD Stuart Weston.