William Hill’s Former Head of Gaming Joins Gala Coral

A whole raft of changes in Gala Coral Interactive’s gaming division have been recently announced, including the contract with Nir Hakarmeli who took the Head of Gaming role. The agreement came a bit surprising, especially considering the fact that Mr. Hakarmeli is William Hill’s former Director of Game Development. Hakarmeli left William Hill in January 2016 just a month before his second anniversary at the rival company. Both William Hill and Gala Coral declined to comment the new agreement.

Nir Hakarmeli had his contract with William Hill in January 2016 and had a two-months gardening leave period before joining Gala Coral Interactive. Once he takes up on his new duties, he will report to Mark Kemp, the Gaming Director of Gala Coral. The position was previously held by a number of senior figures, starting with Alison Digges who reverted to a director of bingo in 2014 and was replaced from Angus Nisbet who has later become a Gaming Operations manager. Mr. Hakarmeli will be responsible for the implementation of the Coral Gaming product and the marketing bonus and promotion strategy. He’ll prepare the budgets and future tactics as well as manage the top-line and cost achievements.

Gala Coral Interactive is the online arm of Gala Coral Group and is currently one of the three largest online betting companies in the UK. There are two bingo brands that are owned by the company, including Gala Bingo, which is the UK’s leading brand for playing online bingo and its sister site, Coral Bingo. Gala Coral is dedicated to providing world class bingo, casino and sports betting products. The brand has recently announced a few more changes. Richard Leask was announced the new head of Gala Casino and Craig Perry will no longer be head of poker, lotto and social and will be responsible for the gaming operations of Gala’s bingo and casino divisions. The Head of Bingo and Casino positions have been vacant after Gavin Grimes (former Head of Casino) and Victoria Reed (former Head of Bingo) left the company a year ago.

Gala Interactive reported an increased revenue growth for the first quarter of 2016’s financial year. The online has grew up to the mind-blowing £60.4M and the online net revenue jumped to £91.1M. Gala is currently in the second phase of merging with Ladbrokes. The company has been recently focused on working with the Competition and Markets Authority and is expected to give its final decision of the eventual merger with Ladbrokes. The new merger is planned to become a fact by the end of June 2016.