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Entain’s interim chief executive Stella David has been given the role on a permanent basis, as the FTSE 100 gambling group aims to recover from a series of executive departures and legal woes.
David, who chaired Entain’s board before agreeing in February to become interim CEO of the Ladbrokes owner for the second time, told the Financial Times on Tuesday that she had seen the company through what she called “many, many challenges”.
Key shareholders had given their support to David becoming permanent chief executive, the FT reported last week. Shares were up as much as 8 per cent in London trading on Tuesday morning on the announcement of her permanent appointment.
The gambling group has been beset by corporate governance concerns as it went through four CEOs in five years. The company signed a deferred prosecution agreement in the UK over allegations it failed to prevent bribery in Turkey, while Australia’s financial crimes watchdog launched legal proceedings against Entain citing breaches of anti-money laundering rules.
Entain said previously that it took the allegations “extremely seriously” and that it was enhancing its compliance arrangements.
Pierre Bouchut, Entain’s newly appointed interim chair, said David brings “consistency and stability.” The search for Entain’s permanent chair is under way.
Entain’s languishing share price — it has lagged peers such as Flutter and Rank Group since the middle of 2023 — has frustrated investors and left the UK-headquartered group vulnerable to a takeover. The US’s second-largest gaming company, DraftKings, made a £16.2bn bid for the company in 2021. Activist investors including US hedge funds such as Eminence Capital and Sachem Head Capital Management have circled the company.
David stepped into the chief executive role after the departure of Gavin Isaacs, who left the company abruptly in February after only five months. Entain did not give a reason for his departure. Isaacs had, in turn, taken up the role after the departure of Jette Nygaard-Andersen, who had come under fire from investors for everything from extensive use of the company’s private jet to spending £2bn on acquisitions.
“We still have some big rocks to move,” said David, who stepped down from whisky distiller William Grant & Sons in 2016 to focus on her non-executive directorships, admitting it was never her “game plan” to take on the role.
“But when you then suddenly are in a situation where you are working with this company every day, you get stuck in the details of the business . . . I feel personally invested now,” she said in an interview.
Entain, which operates in more than 40 territories including the US, the world’s biggest betting market, has also had troubles with its “tech, UK market, our customers”, David said.
But double-digit revenue growth in the UK and in the booming US betting market via its joint venture with MGM helped Entain report on Tuesday an 11 per cent year-on-year rise in first-quarter net gaming revenue at constant currency, slightly above the company’s and some analysts’ expectations.
Ivor Jones, an analyst at Peel Hunt, said David was “a safe pair of hands” set to take over just as a recent period of investment in the company’s platform and products was “beginning to take off”.
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