Ladbrokes Restructures eGaming Team

Various top personnel within Ladbrokes’ egaming division of which the managing director will be replaced by the FTSE 250 bookmaker, the announcement will be made on Friday.

The company is set to proclaim on Friday that Ed Andrewes, managing director of egaming, will leave the company after three years.  Andrewes has negotiated a 6 months gardening leave with Ladbrokes that he will not participate with any of Ladbrokes’ direct competitors.  Andy Harris, who heads gaming and reports to Andrewes, is set to leave as well.  Head of sportsbook within the division Paul Witten finds himself in a client development role.

Ladbrokes’ new director of customer experience is Stephen Vowles, he will report to Glynn and this will come into play from 1 December this year.  Vowles joins Ladbrokes from Ahold where he was SVP of marketing based in the U.S, accountable for Stop & Shop & Giant supermarkets.

Andrewes and Harris’s exit constitutes part of new chief executive, Richard Glynn’s Project Galvanise, an operational assessment that was proposed by him in August, reason for this is to narrow the gap on its rival William Hill and in five years time to double its share price.

Galvanise has decided to spend more time in improving offline image and to focus on its image as an internet casino in the following departments: customer support, brand efficiency and methods to improve on the business’s current technology.

Under Glynn’s new guidance the first scalp has been claimed in the likes of 18-year Ladbrokes specialist and previous managing director of remote betting and gaming John O’Reilly.  O’Really confirmed in August that he was stepping down and this would be publicised on Friday as well.   Glynn praised O’Reilly and said that during his period in office he made a “substantial involvement” to Ladbrokes’ growth and development over the years especially during the company’s online campaign.

Richard Ames in the interim would be responsible for Labrokes’ central operations, with Gary McIlraith joining from Alix Partners.  Ladbrokes has also announced that it is busy with the reorganization of its gaming department.  Previous Gala Coral chairman and chief executive John Kelly has is a new non-executive member of the board.

Ladbrokes New eGaming Team:
Gary McIlraith, director of digital channels, international and strategy
Stephen Vowles, customer experience dierector
Alex Kovach, head of international and mobile
Richard Ames, central operations
Wendy Collins, will head customer acquisition
Paul Witten, customer development
Edwina McDowall, operations and product manager
Cliff Batey, finance

Kovach, Witten and Collins are current staff members of the company.