Former gambling commissioner joins betting company

A man who once put state gambling monopolies on guard and on notice to comply with EU principles has joined the board of directors of the Dublin-based spread-betting company World Spreads.
Sixty-one-year-old Charlie McCreevy is the former chief of the European Commission, and during his tenure was widely respected as a relentless enforcer of European Union principles on free passage of goods and services, in many cases ‘persuading’ exclusive European state gambling monopolies to comply with EU law.
Now retired from the EC, McCreevy’s latest engagement is as a non-executive director with World Spreads. He is also busy with board commitments for Ryanair, Sports Direct and Dublin-based Bank of New York Mellon Clearing International.
McCreevy’s duties with World Spreads include playing an active role in the company’s growth throughout Europe, developing new partnerships with banks, stockbrokers and other financial third parties.
Conor Foley, CEO of the World Spread group, said: “We see Europe as our growth market and we see developing strong partnership agreements as a key part of our growth strategy. From his position as EU Commissioner, Charlie McCreevy gained a unique insight into the EU financial services sector. He is therefore very well positioned to help us gain access to a set of select target partners and we are therefore confident that we will encounter some exciting new partnership prospects over the next two years.”
McCreevy commented that spread trading has quickly evolved into a mainstream financial service throughout the UK and Europe.
“WorldSpreads has demonstrated that it has the professional capability to penetrate these markets.  I am very pleased to make my export promotion experience gained as a minister and my knowledge of the UK and EU markets available to assist companies such as WorldSpreads. I look forward to working alongside its board and management team to help the company fulfil its potential”.

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