P EO P L E 888
have looked at four or five deals – some small“I have to make sure things are done the way er, some bigger, some older, some newer – but I want them to be done.” This succession has this was something like love at first sight, and been carefully planned. Pazner was always the the more we looked into the detail, the more we heir apparent. Frieberger designed the manliked the deal,” says Pazner. agement team so that all the operational manBusiness development chief Yaniv Sheragement of the company reported into Pazner, man oversees M&A, with business developwith only chief financial officer Aviad Kobrine ment VP Marcel Elfersy taking charge on this reporting separately into the CEO. deal. However Frieberger, Pazner and longSo, Pazner is fully tuned in to every aspect serving chief financial officer Aviad Kobrine of the company. As such there is no need for have formed a tight-knit team for many years an overarching COO at present. That might and the BetBright deal can be seen as the fruichange in the future, but Pazner gives the tion of an M&A strategy that has experienced impression that is fairly unlikely. Never say some failure – noticeably on the bids for bwin. never but… party and William Hill. Pazner has his own style, but the change at Though the £15m investment in BetBright the top is unlikely to herald much of a change can hardly be seen as an equivalent to the of strategy. Frieberger and Pazner were part multi-billion pound bids for bwin.party andHills, of the management team that succeeded Gigi it might eventually take 888 to the same place. Levy in 2011. They were joined on the executive 888 has acquired 100 people in team by Sherman, Yaniv Schwartz Ireland (“A country with sports betand head of product technologies Hila ting in its blood,” points out Pazner). Klein. The BetBright platform has been 888’s share The tightly-knit team (together live in the UK for three years and in price high in with chairman and former CEO Brian development for six. There has been June 2018 Mattingley and CFO Kobrine) has a multi-million pound investment been responsible for the turnaround in its technology and team, but not that has seen the company’s rise and quite enough to give it the firepower rise, until a bit of a stutter over the needed to become a great brand in the past year or so. UK market. The 888 team feel like they 888’s share We will return to the stutter later have a bargain. A year ago it would price on the but Pazner makes the point that as an day of Pazner’s integral member of this team he had not have been nearly as cheap. “It is a modern, scalable sports bet- promotion in already assumed responsibility for ting platform that uses a new way of January 2019 the company’s strategic direction. trading and risk management that is That will not change. based on technology and algorithms However, Frieberger is not the only rather than manpower. If you add our member of that team to leave. His sucback end and marketing ability, we will cessor as VP of product technologies, Slide in value add a lot of value,” explains Pazner. Klein, has also left the company, with The team has discontinued the her role being assumed by Gili BrandBetBright brand and will integrate 888Sports shtein, who is also something of an 888 veteran to the platform, market by market – probably having joined the company in 2006. going live in early 2020. It gives 888 a sports betContinuity has been a theme since Frieting platform for the US market and it gives 888 berger and Mattingley took over as COO and control of its own technology across the casino, CEO in 2011. Pazner aims to nourish that culpoker, bingo and sports betting verticals. Few ture but there will be some changes. operators have that capability.
£3.18
£1.69
53%
A smooth succession Pazner and Frieberger followed similar career paths at 888. Like Frieberger, Pazner was COO before becoming chief executive and was senior VP and head of B2C before that. Both were groomed for the top job during their time as COO. However, there will be no new COO with the same responsibilities as Pazner and Frieberger. At least not in the short-tomedium term. “I have to be hands-on,” asserts Pazner. 20
From top: Itai Frieberger, ex-CEO of 888; Hila Klein, ex-SVP head of product technologies, 888
Regulatory challenges
To some extent it feels like a good time for this change. The company’s share price has slumped from a high of GBX318 in June 2018 to just GBX169 on the day that Pazner’s promotion was announced. 888 is just one of 37 gaming companies to see its share price slump during 2018, according to The Gaming Intelligence Stock Index 2018. Revenue has maintained an upward trajectory throughout Frieberger’s tenure. The stutter referred to earlier only applies to the
“I am not a technology or a product person but I am a demanding consumer. And I will be very demanding in the business to get the best products out there” Itai Pazner, 888