Dynamic duo
Bob Akeret
Mike Van Ermen
FSB: CURATING THE WIN FOR THE US MARKET BOB AKERET, VP OF OPERATIONS, AND MIKE VAN ERMEN, VP OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, discuss FSB’s expansion
across the US and the reasons why their experience on the operator side has helped shape their leadership strategy
BY ERIN GALLAGHER
SBC: Thanks for taking the time to chat with us! Can you give us a brief introduction to yourselves? MVE: So I’m the VP of Business Development here at FSB, and I’m based out in Las Vegas. I used to work on the operator side of things, spending several years over at Circa Sports where I helped establish their operations, not
12 SBC LEADERS • JULY 2022
only in Nevada but Colorado as well. I wasn’t a bookmaker by any stretch of the imagination, but I’ve done all the business operations on the operator side. BA: I’m the VP of Operations here at FSB, based out of Atlantic City, New Jersey - born and raised! I’ve been in the industry for a little over 10 years now. Similar to Mike, I also worked on the operator side with Resorts
and Resorts Digital so I’ve got a lot of experience on the retail side of things pre-PASPA. Unlike Mike who comes from Nevada, which had sports betting, I came from a bit of a different background. In Atlantic City, we had the retail casinos - that experience was very instrumental in building a team with Resorts Digital on the operation side. SBC: How did you become involved with FSB? MVE: So both Bob and I started talking to FSB in around Q4 2020. At that point in time they really hadn’t established their foothold in the United States yet. They were really looking for some industry experience to go ahead and lead that US business. Bob and I both received some phone calls, went
