New social gaming chief for Playtech
News on 15 May 2013
News on 15 May 2013
The publication Social Casino Intelligence, allied to postings on LinkedIn have revealed that the former chief exec of Best Casinos and social gaming business Diwip, Dan Wiegenfeld, has been appointed to manage social gaming operations for the Playtech online gambling software provider – a newly created executive position.
Wiegenfeld will oversee B2B and B2C social operations for Playtech, reporting to vice president of operations Shimon Akad.
Social Casino Intelligence says it is unclear whether Diwip will look to replace Wiegenfeld, and that the company’s co-founders, CTO Yaniv Gamzo and CPO Udi Kantzuker will handle his CEO responsibilities for the immediate future.
Announcing the appointment, Playtech chief executive Mor Weizer said Weigenfeld had an excellent record in social gaming, and described him as “…one of the most talented people in the industry.”
A year ago Playtech revealed that it would invest Euro 95 million in social gaming through access via the Skywind interests owned by main Playtech shareholder Teddy Sagi . That was followed by the acquisition of software developers CTXM (now OSGaming) and Viaden Gaming.
The agreement with Sagi provides for use of Skywind’s real-money and social software for an annual licence fee of Euro 6 million and a royalty fee of 20 percent of social gaming revenues.
Social Casino Intelligence speculates that Playtech may also seek to supply software to social gaming operators in B2B deals.
Wiegenfeld has an interesting biog; starting out in the Israeli military where he rose to the rank of major in the engineers. He then ran a series of small Tel Aviv-based start-up companies providing marketing analytics and customer relationship software, such as the Taylor Institute, Next Generation Layers, Performix Israel and Better Plan, a provider of workforce management solutions for small and medium call centers and help desks.
Diwip co-founders software engineers Yaniv Gamzo and Udi Kantzuker approached Weigenfeld early in 2011 with a proposal that he join their company (which had launched the Best Casino line late in 2010) as CEO, and Weigenfeld joined the company in May 2011.
The trio had worked together on a previous independent project, and whilst Gamzo and Kantzuker had the technical experience and talent to build online gaming products, they needed someone with Weigenfeld’s knowledge of marketing, predictive analysis, data mining and CRM to handle the business side.
Since joining, Wiegenfeld has overseen year-on-year player growth of 500 percent, with monthly actives rising from 300,000 in May 2011 to over 2 million. Diwip now ranks among Facebook’s top 25 highest-grossing apps, grossing more than established and better-funded products such as Gamesys’ Jackpot Joy Slots and Ludia’s The Price is Right-branded app.
