So today’s the day, the day that Stella David takes on scandal-wracked Entain, arguably the toughest and most freighted job in British gaming.
Cambridge University graduate David, a woman with a brilliant CV, having held top executive posts at a cluster of top British and international firms, from Bacardi rum, to Clarks shoes, Domino’s Pizza and the Vue Cinema chain, among many others, was upgraded from her non-Executive Director post at Entain to temporary CEO after the defenestration of Jette Nygaard-Andersen in December last year.
Nygaard-Andersen was ejected from the corporate jet after a widespread shareholder revolt which questioned her controversial policy of trying to buy Entain out of trouble by audacious–and her critics argued–over-priced–expansion in the the Central and Eastern Europe gambling space — a policy that ironically has proved to be one of the few positives of Entain’s contemporary, financially-challenged present.
Fifty-six-year-old David (pictured, right) has previously been garlanded as one of the world’s top 100 female business leaders.
She joined Entain as Senior Independent Non-executive Director in February, 2021 and was offered her new position as Chair of the Board soon after Barry Gibson announced his resignation from the post in April this year.
Money Laundering
The British gaming giant has been roiled by a long-running saga over a money laundering betting scandal by a Turkish affiliate when it was operating under the GVC Holdings banner.
Earlier this year Entain paid a massive £620 million fine (US$823.9m/€744.17m) to UK tax and revenue authorities–the biggest financial sanction in national corporate history–to settle the issue.
But FTSE100 Entain, nevertheless, has struggled to stay afloat in the gambling industry since the Turkish imbroglio, delivering a series of poor trading quarters.
Last year, for example, the Isle-of-Man-headquartered iGaming giant lost £900 million (US$1.19bn/€1.08bn).
The company, owner of top brands Ladbrokes Coral, bwin, PartyPoker, Sportingbet, et al, was savaged by a number of its own major stakeholders, prominent among them New York City-based activist investor Ricky Sandler of Eminence Capital.
They charged that Entain had paid way over the top for iGaming companies, such as Poland’s dominant STS and Croatia’s SuperSport and that these acquisitions had seriously devalued share value.
Strategy
Entain have responded by bringing-in safe-pair-of-hands gambling industry veteran Gavin Isaacs (pictured, above), former President of Scientific Games and Chair of SBTech, as its new CEO.
Ever the brilliant ambassador, David has signalled that peace has broken out across the troubled Omnichannel by noting:
“I have been a Director of Entain for almost three-years and have seen up close the extraordinary hard work that Jette and her team have put in overhauling the culture and practices at Entain.
“I look forward to helping to build on the strong foundations for future commercial success that she leaves behind her.”
Isaacs and David will unveil their new leadership strategy before delivering Entain’s Q3 Trading Update later this month.
We wish the new Entain duopoly the very best of luck.
