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J I M R YA N :
RETROSPECTIVE
In December, bwin.party co-CEO Jim Ryan announced that he would retire on 15 January. eGaming Review takes a look back at the biggest moments from more than a decade in the online gambling industry.
January 2002: Appointed as chief financial officer of CryptoLogic January 2005: Named president and CEO of Excapsa Software February 2006: Excapsa completes initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market October 2006: Excapsa sold to Malta-based Blast Off Ltd, one day before George Bush enforces the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) January 2007: Appointed CEO of Gibraltar-based St Minver May 2008: Named Mitch Garber’s successor as CEO of PartyGaming April 2009: PartyGaming settles with US authorities for US$105m, relating to pre-2006 US-facing egaming activities July 2009: Ryan leads the operator’s acquisition of Foxy Bingo owner Cashcade for £71.9m November 2009: Acquisition of World Poker Tour Enterprises completed for an initial US$12.3m January 2010: Seals five-year agreement between PartyGaming and Danske Spil; Danish state lottery online when the dot.dk market opened in January 2012 July 2010: Agrees merger with Austrian operator bwin March 2011: PartyGaming completes merger with bwin to form bwin.party Digital Entertainment; Ryan and Norbert Teufelberger named as co-CEOs October 2011: Ryan is instrumental in negotiations leading to bwin. party’s US-facing joint ventures with MGM and Boyd Gaming May 2012: Operator agrees 10year B2B deal with Californian tribal group United Auburn Indian Community October 2012: bwin.party partners with Zynga, with a real-money egaming offering set to be rolled out in H1 2013
GALA CORAL BOOSTED BY ITALY GROWTH
Gala Coral has seen signi?cant growth from its dot.com and dot.it online offerings, the operator has announced in its ?nancial results for the year ended 29 September. Interactive gross pro?t was up 11.7% year-on-year (YoY) to £76.1m, growing at a greater rate than that seen by the business’s larger land-based element, while gross pro?t from Italian activities rose 23.3% YoY to £23.3m. The fourth quarter showed particularly strong growth, with the relaunched galacasino.com and galabingo.com websites helping contribute to gross pro?ts rising 32% compared to the corresponding period in 2011. The operator has relaunched the coral.co.uk website since th