LEADING
THE INV
ASION
888 has quickly stolen a march on its competitors in
the US and chief executive Brian Mattingley tells Tom
Washington he’s only just got started
B
rian Mattingley has won over his fair
share of doubters since taking on the
role of 888 chief executive in March
2012. The Englishman has overseen a period
of rapid growth in poker and casino which,
along with a successful launch in Spain, has
propelled the company to the industry’s
top tier.
But while 888’s star may have risen sharply
in Europe, the operator has also quickly made
a name for itself stateside with its aggressive
expansion strategy. It is currently the only
European operator to have established
a presence in all three of the country’s
regulated egaming markets, in two of which
it will launch its own 888-branded sites. The
company will also be providing B2B services
in Delaware, Nevada and New Jersey through
its agreements with Caesars Interactive,
Scientific Games and WMS. As starts go, 888
www.egrmagazine.com
has flown out of the blocks in the US and
positioned itself for success. But Mattingley
isn’t satisfied yet, not by a long stretch.
When eGaming Review catches up with
Mattingley he has just touched down from
one of his increasingly frequent visits to the
US, where he has been on a whistlestop
investment roadshow taking in Boston,
Chicago and New York.
His job now is significantly easier than
it was 18 months ago, when he was tasked
with convincing US counterparts that 888
was the partner of choice. “When we were
first starting to negotiate in Nevada, we were
nobody,” says Mattingley. “The response we
were getting was ‘who is this 888?’.”
“For us it’s all about getting the 888 brand
to market in every state possible, and in fact
the work we did in Nevada led to us being
introduced to our partners in New Jersey.
Our reputation at that stage definitely helped,
and we didn’t necessarily have to get involved
in offering $10m or $15m to lease a casino’s
licence. We weren’t in that game,” he adds.
“As you move on I think people recognise
we are a serious player and I think we will get
people knocking on our door asking if we’ll
consider working with them in different states
as they open up. That is already beginning to
happen.”
And as a listed firm Mattingley is
increasingly aware of the need to win over
investors in the US as well as potential
partners. The initial scepticism of the
regulatory uncertainty, he claims, is slowly
fizzling out and is being replaced by a
genuine interest in the moves 888 is making.
“Even now when I’m going round talking to
investors there are some guys very sceptical
about egaming as a whole, but I think I
converted the majority of them that this is
happening and would take off,” he says.
“One of the things we set out to do was to
try and get ourselves a name. I wanted to talk
to investors about internet gaming as there
has been a great deal of nervousness that it’s
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