Betfair loses another exec

Online gambling group Betfair’s management woes continued this week with reports that Matt Carter, a ten year veteran in the company responsible for technical architecture and advanced technology, is leaving.
Carter’s next career move is not at present known.
The Guardian newspaper reported that Carter has become the latest influential employee to quit, following the earlier resignations of 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.
The group has also endured a troubled start to life as a public company, having floated at GBP13.00 last autumn, only to see its shares close at 775.5p on Friday.
The Guardian emphasises Carter’s important contribution to the corporate by quoting from the firm’s IPO prospectus, in which it said that 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.
“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,” the document advised.  “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.”
Reacting to the report, a Betfair spokesman wished Carter well but pointed out that the company’s technology team has been strengthened with a significant number of senior hires over the past 18 months, most recently with the appointments of Raj Vemulapalli from Yahoo as head of mobile and Michael Bischoff from London Clearing House as director of information systems.
“We are building a stronger technology team to increase the pace of innovation,” the spokesman said.
Five further members of Carter’s former team – Asher Glynne, Jonathan Westlake, Enzo Raso and Tony Ballardie – are also leaving the company, the newspaper disclosed.
“The changes come as Tony McAlister, Betfair’s chief technology officer, begins integrating the teams that dream up future ideas with the programmers that deliver them. While McAlister has expanded his staff to 650, from 400, since he joined the business two years ago, there are thought to be a number of employees disaffected by his changes,” The Guardian notes.

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