Company veteran departs
According to the latest information from online gambling group Betfair, the company’s decade-long employee, an executive in charge of technical architecture and advanced technology, Matt Carter, decided to leave the company and make a career move which at this time remains unspecified.
In addition, it seems like another five members of Carter's former team – Asher Glynne, Jonathan Westlake, Enzo Raso and Tony Ballardie – are also departing from the company.
Prior to this, Betfair lost Mathias Entenmann, chief product and services officer; Charlie Palmer, head of mobile; Robin Osmond, chief executive of financial betting exchange LMAX; and Lee Cowles, director of UK sports and gaming. And as if this wasn’t enough, the tough period for the company extends with a serious drop it has experienced as a public company, from last autumn’s GBP13.00, to 775.5p per share on May 27, 2011.
According to the company’s IPO prospectus, “Betfair's success has in large measure been driven by its ability consistently to develop and launch new customer products and new and innovative technologies.”
The document continues: “There can be no certainty that Betfair will continue to be able to develop its technology to keep up to date with developments across the online betting and gaming sector and, in particular, to launch such products or new technologies in a timely manneror at all.”
"In addition, there can be no certainty that such products will be popular with customers or that such products or new technologies will be reliable, robust and not susceptible to viruses or failure. Any of these factors could have a material adverse effect on Betfair's operations, financial performance and prospects," it was concluded.
In his reaction to the report, Betfair spokesman, who wished Carter well, stressed that the company's technology team received a significant reinforcement with numerous senior hires over the past 18 months. As an example, he pointed out the appointment of Raj Vemulapalli from Yahoo as head of mobile and Michael Bischoff from London Clearing House as director of information systems, underlining: "We are building a stronger technology team to increase the pace of innovation.”
