New Non-Executive Directors Appointed To 888 As Huge William Hill Deal Goes Through

The online casino company, 888 Holdings plc, has just restructured its board by announcing three new non-executive directors. Andrea Gisle Joosen, Andria Vidler and Randy Freer will all join 888’s board in an independent capacity, meaning they will be consulted on the company’s running but will not have any executive powers.

The appointments follow an executive reshuffle prompted by 888’s acquisition of William Hill’s European retail and online assets, a deal worth £1.95bn.

Andrea Gisle Joosen has a range of experience and has served as a non-executive director at Mr Green before William Hill acquired it in 2018. Before that, she served as Acast AB’s chair and as a non-executive director at ICA Gruppen and James Hardie Industries. Joosen also currently serves on the boards of Currys in the UK and Billerud AB in Sweden.

Andria Vidler’s background, on the other hand, is centred around marketing and technology. Her previous positions include the CEO of Tag EMEA and a range of different roles in C-Suite positions at the BBC and Bauer Media.

Randy Freer finally is CEO of brand consultancy The Freer Company, before which he was the CEO of Hulu and COO at Fox Networks Group, which includes National Geographic.

As mentioned, these new appointments resulted from 888 completing a huge acquisition of all of William Hill’s non-US assets. With all these new resources, including land-based bookmakers, which 888 will have never owned, new blood seems to have been brought on board to help guide the business’ future. However, what will stay the same is Itai Pazner’s position as CEO with Yariv Dafna as group CFO.

Lord Mendelsohn, Non-Executive Chairman of 888 Holdings Plc, said: “It gives me great pleasure to welcome three outstanding candidates in Andrea, Andria and Randy, to the board of 888. As well as further strengthening the Group’s corporate governance structure, they each bring extensive and highly relevant skills and experience to our board which will be of significant benefit to the Group as it delivers its long-term strategic objectives as an enlarged business post the completion of our acquisition of William Hill. 888 has a number of very exciting opportunities ahead, and I am looking forward to working closely with our strengthened board to continue to deliver the Group’s growth strategy and generate further stakeholder value.”

In addition to these three new non-exec board members, there are rumours that 888 is planning to add a further board member in Ori Shaked. Shaked is a notable gaming entrepreneur and someone with a great depth of experience in the industry. However, this latest addition is still subject to various regulatory approvals, which are uncompleted.