Former Intertain CEO joins  Canadian payment processor

Online gambling industry John Kennedy Fitzgerald has been appointed president and CEO of Calgary-based payment processor Vogogo Inc.

Vogogo chairman Dale Johnson said Thursday, “John’s impressive track record spanning elite sport, law and building highly successful businesses in emerging markets positions him ideally to lead the creation of a world-class company at Vogogo within the blockchain/cryptocurrency space.”

FitzGerald, who holds a law degree, entered the online gambling industry as general counsel for software and games developer Cryptologic, going on to consult in the industry before co-founding Ethoca in 2005, a global provider of collaboration-based fraud prevention technology which assists card companies, ecommerce merchants and other online businesses in fraud prevention.

In 2010, he co-founded Virgin Gaming (formerly World Gaming), going on to found the Intertain Group (now Jackpotjoy plc) in Canada two years later. Intertain became the largest bingo-led online gaming company in the world, with Fitzgerald as its CEO until 2016.

Commenting on his Vogogo appointment, Fitzgerald said:

“This is a very exciting time to be involved in cryptocurrency and blockchain technology – I love this stuff and what the future holds for us.  We are at the very early days of adoption and at this stage the entire space reminds me very much of the late 90’s and the online gambling industry.”

Vogogo notes that Fitzgerald has agreed to have his salary paid in Bitcoin.

Former CEO and president Gino Michele has stepped down but will continue to serve on the board of directors of the company.