iGaming Daily

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The second business week of 2024, rang in the sounds of change as Flutter Entertainment announced that its long-term steward, Richard Flint, will leave the company's boardroom ahead of the firm's NYSE dual listing at the end of the month. Coincidentally, 24 hours following Flint's resignation, industry's trade body, the Baton and Gaming Council, declared changes to its leadership and boardroom, announcing that Bridget Simmons had stepped down from her duties as chair.

Today, iGamingDaily reviews two high profile executives ending their affairs with gambling and what 2024 will have installed for industry leadership navigating a fraught and ever political industry backdrop. I'm James Ross and on today's episode of iGamingDaily brought to you by OptiMove, I'm joined by Edward Memwear and Martin Elliott to kickstart the week. How are you both doing? Do you have a pleasant weekend, Martin? Uh, yeah.

already seems quite a long time ago though. So, uh, been busy this morning. So, uh, yeah, looking forward to this though. Yeah. Same. And Ted, good weekend. Anything interesting? Uh, watch gladiators. Yeah. Uh, I'm a sucker for 90s nostalgia and, uh, I'm glad it's back guys. We're already in a better place in 2024. Did it live up to its original hype? Uh, it's getting there. Is it the same as the original? Any better? Oh, it's too soon to tell, but as it was, uh,

success for the BBC and worth my fee. But maybe in a few weeks we'll get your updated review. Yes. iGamingDaily, we are pro gladiators, pro gladiator podcast. Cool. So before we delve into the topics, now's probably an appropriate time to mention the sponsor of our podcast. And...

This podcast, iGaming Daily is presented by OptiMove, the number one CRM marketing solution for the iGaming market. 56% of EGR's Power 50 personalize player experiences with OptiMove. OptiMove, the number one CRM marketing solution for the iGaming market. And if for anyone who's visiting ICE in February, make sure you visit the OptiMove stand, mention that you listen to our podcast, iGaming Daily, and you will

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receive a Amazon gift card. And I will be making sure I attend to that stand quite a lot in different disguises. Um, but yeah, make sure you do. And yeah, back to the podcast. It's so in the first half, in the first half, we're going to focus more on the floor of resignation. And then the second half it'd be more on Bridget, but I do need to ask. Two resignations in the space of a week, 2024. Do these.

departures have kind of an underlying narrative for the sector in 2024. And Ted, I'm going to come to you on this one. Um, I think it's down to kind of your view and your take on the industry and where it stands at the moment. Um, in Richard Flynn's perspective, it is Flutter kind of losing their elder statesman of the board, a guy who's guided them through, um, the kind of key integrations of the company becoming.

this footsie giants from its merger from the Patti Papp betfair's merger with the Stars Group INC. He oversaw the growth of SkyBit, which I often think in kind of its current kind of acknowledgement with Flutter, it's kind of forgotten about what a kind of powerful betting brand it was and what a game changer it was for the industry. In terms of the BGC,

I think the other thing that we have to reflect on it's that we're kind of reaching the midway point of what is a kind of very conflicted and very kind of disruptive decade for iGaming. And I think for a lot of executives, it has been kind of an exhausting process these first four years of 2020 to 2024. And kind of let's start, like I said, with Flint and Forter.

Why was Flint held in such esteem in the industry and what were his main achievements? Martin, do you want to take this one? Sure. It's difficult to understate the job he did at Sky Bettenham Gaming through all those years. Let's see if we can do a brief history in 60 seconds on Sky Bettenham Gaming.

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Sky acquired a group of internet companies for 300 million pounds back in 2000. And the reason they actually bought it was for the Planet Football website, which at the time dot-com valuations were ludicrous. And what part of the group, there was a small telephone betting operation, which eventually under sort of Richard Flint became leader of that.

betting operation for Sky. Um, and he took it onto the sort of the red button betting in the old days on the digital TV, um, he was also sort of involved in the launch of Sky Vegas, which even today is the biggest, or in terms of player numbers, the biggest casino in the UK, um, and then, you know, they're halfway through his time there. They had a big, uh,

turn around because of changing technology. More people were interested in internet and mobile betting, red button betting sort of died a death. So they lost that USP, but actually managed to come back significantly stronger. And I think they would tell you today that, as well as Sky Vegas being the largest casino in the UK, in terms of player numbers, they also say that Sky Bet is the biggest sports book in the UK as well.

So it's, you know, it's the world's, if you count in the U S as separate states, this is the world's biggest markets. So to be biggest in player numbers on both facets is, is incredible really. Um, and also some of the, just the commercial success, um, from that initial business launch in 2000 for sky, uh, in 2015, this all the 80% stake of the business to CVC for 600 million.

And then Richard Flint continued in charge. By 2018, the Sky, Bettenham and Gaming sold Stars Group for £3.4 billion. And then obviously Stars Group merged with Paddy Power Betfair to form Flutter a bit later. So it's a huge success story. And there are lots of angles to this, but in terms of just technology, marketing,

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taking advantage of the growth of the Premier League to grow the brand and so on. It's very difficult to look at any major failings they've had along the way. It's been a great success story for the industry and a great success story for the wider UK tech industry as well, I think. Ted, what did Flink kind of foresee for the industry? And call us up. Yeah. I mean, I just.

I'd like to add to what Martin was saying. I mean, what's forgotten is what he was. Flint was a very good kind of taskmaster and he oversaw SkyBets from its enterprise stage to its M&A and also through the various transitions of UK gambling. Now, one of the things that gets kind of leveraged at SkyBet is that, well, it fed off the back of, you know, having this big broadcaster by its side. However, I think he took like a lot of

He executed a lot of very good strategic decisions there, building a kind of SkyBets proprietary tech platform, focusing its operations like singularly in leads and not dealing again very much like Bet365 and what we spoke about last week, not dealing with third party platforms, building them, you know, taking a focus to build things in house. In terms of what Richard foresaw, I think in 28, he was very open about…

future challenges of the industry and in terms of its conduct and responsible gambling. He addressed an audience of executives at ICE 2018 and he kind of laid out the problems that as it stood, online gaming and especially online casino was going down the course of being viewed as pretty much in the same spectrum as

quick loans, which was which were a huge problem back then. And that the industry really needed to act kind of in the front foot and invest in new technologies to improve RET and especially on intervention and actually put some academic thinking behind how it deals with problem gambling and also expanded stakeholders. And I also think that he should be praised.

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uh, as being a CEO or an executive who was actually very much in the frontline of this debate and didn't hide within kind of its, uh, within its intricacies. He was, he was always willing to speak to the media about this. He was very open about Sky strategy with, uh, and what it was trying to achieve through its sponsorships and promoting safer gambling.

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either of you's actually at MIME, we'll go with you first. Um, I mean, maybe, uh, he has a lot of, uh, investments in smaller businesses that he's made. He, he has a number of, uh, non-exec roles outside the industry. Um, who knows? He might've reached a point where the golf course is an attractive, uh, an attractive way of life. But, um,

In no great surprise to anyone, Starsports are actually running a book on the next permanent CEO of Entain. And after the news that he'd resigned as a non-executive flutter, Richard Flint is now the three to one favorite. So maybe we won't see him on the golf course too soon. And Ted? I don't think so.

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Um, I think if you're an executive and especially if you had success in gaming, uh, you'd be coming back to a very, very different industry and one where there's a political mouth storm that's being felt. And, um, I think from having seen Richard speak on it, this, you know, this, this apolitical backdrop is, is draining. And, uh, I think.

that he feels that his skill set would be better suited to a different sector. And there's also gladiators on TV. And it's perfect time not to come back. I can't wait for him to have his little, what do they call them? The two Darth Maul looking. Pugil sticks.

Can't wait for him to have his little pew drill sticks and start finding another compartment on the pedestal. But that's for another day on another podcast, hopefully. We're going to take a quick ad break. And when we come back, we're going to still talk about resignations, but we're going to be talking about Bridget Simmons. Welcome back. Like I said, in the first part, we're going to talk about Bridget Simmons now. And Ted, I'm going to come back to you.

on this one just to provide an overview of leadership changes announced by the, uh, the Bennington Gaming Council. Yes. So shortly, 24 hours after Richard Flint announced his resignation, um, we had the Bennington Gaming Council, the UK's industry trade body announced that, um, Bridget Simmons, uh, decided or had ended her affairs as chair of the trade body.

and that she will be replaced by existing CEO. Michael Duga will step up to the chairman and he'll oversee the final stage of the industry and its representation in the gambling review. The BGC have executed a executive search for a new CEO to take over kind of the day-to-day duties of representing the trade body.

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And the announcement kind of, again, going back to what we're talking about at the start of the podcast, I kind of see it as it's surprising in a sense because the industry is yet to, especially in the UK, is yet to get to find out its resolutions. But at the same time, it's been a very, very draining kind of four-year period.

for everyone involved. So I wasn't surprised by, by Simmons resignation. Yeah. I mean, it's, for me, it's quite a shame. Anyone who's listened to the podcast knows that I'm, I'm a fan of Bridget. She was the first person in my, when I was doing my masters, my dissertation to kind of offer me an interview when she was at the, I think it was the Pub and Beer Association.

And I was struggling actually at that time to actually get an interview and get my dissertation off the ground. Um, but she agreed to do it. And from there, it kind of spiraled on that I got quite a few big names in the industry. Tim Martin from CEO of Weatherspoons agreed because Bridget was part of it. And then our careers kind of followed a similar path where I entered the, the gambling space at SBC obviously, and then she was at the, uh, the BGC as well. And did a lovely interview with her at SBC Summit Barcelona as well.

I've always got time for Bridges. So wherever Bridget goes next, I'll go. I'll keep following her. Um, but, you know, Simmons, she, she kind of saw kind of a lot of changes, many social responsibility changes, such as the RT, RET funding, you know, gaming controls, game designs, advertising code. But were any of these actually recognized by the government? Well, that is a, a good question. Um, I think a lot.

A lot of these changes were going to come in the change to regulations on, and the gambling commission has been demanding some of these things as well as we've gone along. The big players in the industry, the serious players who are investing in the future and in safer gambling and so on, have been pretty strong at getting ahead of the game on some of these changes, which they recognize were going to be inevitable.

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So I think it's a, I think the government and the gambling commission has recognized some work has been done, but you could argue, you know, the changes were coming with a government enforced or industry doing it first. I think it's just sensible steps. A lot of these things have been taken. Yeah. And Ted's already alluded to it that she was, she was doing a lot of this while the gambling app review was going on. Like how difficult of a job did she have representing the sector?

during this troubled time? Well, hugely, hugely. Anyone who reads any sort of newspaper or the BBC and so on will have seen the huge amount of pressure coming from groups who are, how shall I put it? Let's be kind. Let's say they want to see significant change in the industry, significantly more change than the industry is willing to give up, probably more than the government wants to impose as well.

And those pressure groups have really got on top in the PR war. They've been telling this story about gambling-related suicides, and also big family stories about people who've lost a lot of money because of gambling addiction and so on. And set against that backdrop, those emotions that everyone can understand, as a PR tactic.

It's faultless, near enough really. But it's so difficult for the BGC to come back and with any sort of argument against that. Because it seems, if you start relying on facts and figures and so on, it seems a little bit inhumane almost in the face of the arguments that have come. So it's been very, the public side of the lobbying has been extremely difficult. We don't know, of course,

what the conversations behind closed doors with ministers and regulators and so on have been. They may have been more fruitful and they in many ways are more important. But certainly, you know, public side, I did not, I was not at all jealous of her role or Michael Dougher's role either. If I can just add, I think we've got to be reflective of the BGC's journey as a trade body. Now, I think when they came in 2019,

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Um, they had, you know, it was quite a simple strategy to represent the industry. However, I think the debate and the discussion on gaming has meandered into a lot of separate areas and a lot of conflicting areas that, um, that are present at the moment. Um, the other thing is that I don't think that you can just judge it in terms of

It's a winner or loss. I think the outcome, no one will be satisfied by the outcome, but we are now at a point where the industry just needs some form of resolution to go forward and to understand its terms of place. And again, this is going back to it's been a very exhausting process for everyone involved. And just the final, final question is going to wrap the podcast. Does the appointment and this kind of, this might sound like a really, a really mean question. It doesn't mean to be that way.

Does the appointment of a new BGC CEO really matter considering we're going into a year of unknowns for UK gambling? Ted, I'm going to come back to you and then we'll finish on Martin. I think it does. And I'm actually going to credit the BGC because if we go back to 2019, this is a very fragmented industry and it's achieved something that was needed and that was to kind of unify the voices.

and unify the kind of interpretation of the industry. And now the government knows who it's dealing with. And actually it's put forward a very strong case for the industry in terms of how big it is, but also its contribution to the UK economy and the taxes it's paid. And it's a much clearer voice. So I think the duties of that new CEO will change, but they will have some significance.

So I'm not that kind of bleak on the BGC as a trade body. It's done the job it needed to do representing us. Sorry, if I've been looking at you pointing at me there, James, in the studio, I would have known you want to speak at this point. Yeah, I agree with Ted really. I think we're likely to see a change of government before a change in the

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regulation is finalized. So, you know, Keir Starmer's government and you know, it will be Keir Starmer's government. There's no point suggesting it's going to be anything else at the election. They'll have different priorities. I can't see gambling being a big priority for them. So we need a good relationship building with that government. We need someone who'll

stand up and make the case again for gambling, because it's probably going to be, it could be another two years this goes on for now, the review and before we get any finality to it. So yeah, I think it's important to have that right figurehead for the industry out there. Well, and when that right figurehead comes and all the latest news comes from that, SBC News will be covering it as it breaks. And just before we end the podcast, you want to give us a brief roundup of some of the big news that's hit the SBC News website today.

Yes, please. Um, if you go in today, you will be reading about Google's latest, uh, update on RMG apps that have been allowed for India, Mexico and Brazil. And the BHA's, uh, response to the parliamentary committee announcing its scheduled dates for the discussion on affordability checks and how it impacts horse racing. So please do tune in. Yeah. Oh, and all the, uh, all those articles that Ted mentioned, I will leave in.

the description below, I'll leave a link along with any articles relating to the topic that we've discussed today with Flint and Bridget Simmons' resignations. Apart from that, this has been iGamingDaily. Martin and Ted, thank you for joining me today and tune in tomorrow where you hear my voice again for another episode of iGamingDaily. Thank you and goodbye.