Global betting giant Entain is on the hunt for a new chief executive after Jette Nygaard-Andersen announced she would be stepping down.
Entain, the owner of the Ladbrokes and Neds brands in Australia, and who this year secured the 25-year rights to run TAB NZ, announced on Wednesday that Nygaard-Andersen would be leaving just under three years since she assumed the role.
Stella David, a non-executive director, will serve as interim CEO until a permanent replacement is found.
Entain’s global outfit recently received a £585 million ($A1.1 billion) fine after a four-year investigation by HM Revenue & Customs stemming from alleged bribery at the group's former Turkish unit.
That pre-dated Nygaard-Andersen’s leadership of Entain’s global team, but she said she felt now was the right time for her to leave.
"The past three years have been rewarding and challenging in equal measure. The resolution of the HMRC investigation into the legacy business, which was sold by a former management team in 2017, offers a clean inflection point for me and for Entain,” she said.
"The group is now safe, stable and sustainable and I believe that this is the right time to move on to other business and career opportunities."
David added: "I have been a director of Entain for almost three years and have seen up close the extraordinary hard work that Jette and her team have put in overhauling the culture and practices at Entain.
"I look forward to helping to build on the strong foundations for future commercial success that she leaves behind her.”
Entain’s Australia and New Zealand business is led by CEO Dean Shannon and has increased its market share in Australia by five percentage points to 19 per cent since 2019.
In 2021, it lodged a $3.5 billion takeover offer for Tabcorp’s media and wagering business, which was ultimately rejected but was a strong signal of its intent to challenge Flutter as the major player in the Australian market.
Having built up its content offerings on both sides of the Tasman, and signed a $1 billion deal for the NZ TAB, it was recently linked with a possible takeover of Victorian racing industry broadcaster, Racing.com.
Globally, the business has faced regulatory and growth challenges, while in 2021, it was subject to a takeover offer from Las Vegas-based MGM.
The expansion into the booming US sports betting market is seen as crucial to Entain’s growth and it is a joint venture partner in BetMGM.
It recently announced it is targeting a profit of $US500 million in that business by 2026.
Among the names first linked to the Entain CEO job was high-profile former Australian bookmaker, and now venture capital investor, Tom Waterhouse.
