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With comings and goings commonplace across the industry, OpenBet, Xace, and the FDJ, all feature in our latest rundown of a number of recent manoeuvres.

Xace

Player banking solutions provider Xace has confirmed that igaming and fintech investor Julian Buhagiar has joined its business as a non-executive director.   

Buhagiar, the co-founder of igaming M&A advisory RB Capital, will provide the group’s leadership team with oversight on venture funding and strategic planning as it moves to aggressively expand its business services in 2022.

Xace underscored Buhagiar’s proven track record with RB Capital and as the founding partner of Malta venture capital fund Yolo Investments that maintains €400m under management, investing in 68 companies since its inception.

“I am thrilled to have someone of Julian’s calibre joining Xace. His deep knowledge of the gaming and fintech industry,  combined with his intellectual capacity cannot be overstated,” noted Xace CEO David Hodkinson.

Vivo Gaming

Live casino software provider Vivo Gaming has moved to strengthen its senior leadership team after appointing Martin Hodges to the role of marketing director.

In the position, he will be responsible for managing the overall direction of all marketing and communication activity involving the brand, which is looking to continue its growth trajectory across the regulated European landscape.

His appointment is one of three new management hires, after Benjamin Umoren and Herberth Castro also joined the company as business intelligence manager and product manager respectively.

Yuval Shochat, COO at Vivo Gaming, said: “Martin boasts a proven track-record within both marketing and igaming, we’re confident his wealth of experience will prove invaluable to everyone, bringing new and innovative ideas to the company.

“There are exciting times ahead of us at Vivo Gaming, these new appointments highlight our ambition going-forward, we’re delighted to welcome all of our new appointments to the team.”

Beter

Beter has appointed a new chief revenue officer to oversee its market expansion ambitions for 2022, with Yori Arami stepping in to the role.

The company has asserted that the new hire’s ‘commercial acumen’ is ‘instrumental’ for its expansion plans and to establish itself as the ‘supplier of choice’ for next-gen gaming products.

Arami’s role will include the coordination of a number of commercial processes, covering sales, business development, account management, both pre and post-sale services, partnership development and optimisation. 

Commenting on the position, Arami said: “Since joining, I’ve been impressed with the can-do attitude of the staff at Beter, the hunger to lead the market and its straightforward culture and team spirit. It was an easy decision to make, and I’m privileged to join.

“My short-term objective at Beter is to bring my experience, share my knowledge and lead the commercial team to build on its existing success while also driving growth through the introduction of innovative products, expand the client base and penetrate new markets across the world.”

OpenBet

OpenBet has moved to strengthen its executive leadership ranks ahead of major imminent changes for the sports betting technology and platform supplier. 

Tech figurehead Florian Diederichsen has joined as CTO, charged with evolving the group’s modular platform and accelerating its next cycle of betting innovations.

“I’m delighted to have joined OpenBet and thoroughly looking forward to the next chapter of my career,” Diederichsen commented on joining the OpenBet leadership team.

“Development work is already underway behind the scenes that will revolutionise the future of sports betting entertainment and I cannot wait to share our innovative concepts within the marketplace.”

FDJ

Groupe FDJ, the operating company of Française des Jeux, France’s national lottery operator, has confirmed the appointment of Isabelle Bastien as new group chief commercial officer.

Bastien has joined FDJ’s executive committee and will be charged with leadership of Paris Euronext gambling group’s sales force activities and B2B trade marketing teams.

She will spearhead FDJ’s commercial development, as the gambling group aims to operate its French lottery network uninterrupted following two-years of COVID-19 constraints that have dragged the group’s post Paris IPO performance.