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Posted by: ian_go at May 25, 2006, 9:26 am

Topic: Payne steps down from CEO post at Sportingbet Forum: Winner Online

Nigel Payne will be stepping down as chief executive of egaming sportsbook and poker giant Sportingbet in October, the company announced today.
Andrew McIver, group finance director, will take over the role of chief executive, while Payne will remain with the firm as an executive director with responsibilities for business development and regulatory lobbying in the US and Europe.

The move came as a surprise to industry observers, as Payne was instrumental in making Sportingbet one of the industry leaders and has been widely credited as being one of the most articulate champions of the online gaming cause.

However, stories of any ulterior motives for the move were quickly quashed by industry experts. Andrew Lee, analyst at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, said: “There is nothing sinister about it. He has had six years at the helm and the workload was far too high. If he were leaving the business, I’d be concerned, but he isn’t. He is staying on the board. Andrew McIver is ‘a safe pair of hands’, albeit it will be difficult to live up to Nigel’s record. Nigel Payne was the industry.”

The majority of commentators echoed this iew. One industry source said: “I think he has wanted to slow down for a while. This is a way of easing himself out without causing too many shocks.”

Meanwhile, the appointment of McIver as chief executive was iewed in a positive light by industry sources. One said: “The appointment of Andrew McIver is interesting as he has done a fantastic job as finance director. With David Hobday getting even more involved in his role as chief operating officer, Sportingbet will have Payne in the US and Mark Blandford as founder and chairman. It is an appropriate move.”

McIver told eGaming Review that the move by Payne will allow the workload to be more evenly split, with himself, Payne, Hobday and a new finance director all involved in the running of the business. To illustrate the point, McIver said: “Five years ago, we were making £14m (US$26.1m) profit and had a couple of hundred staff. Nowadays, we are making north of £100m and have 1,000 people working for us.”

Payne commented: "Sportingbet has a real depth of management talent that means I can now step down from the day-to-day responsibilities and concentrate on certain crucial areas such as regulatory development and business expansion. Andrew McIver has played a key role in this management team and under his leadership I have no doubt that the group will continue to be ery successful.”

source: egrmagazine

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