Sky Betting & Gaming’s Head of CRM Quits for a Private Investment Service Company

Article by : Helen Feb 1, 2021

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After working with one of the largest online gambling and betting companies for almost nine years, Sky Betting & Gaming’s Head of CRM has decided to call it quits. Gary Wilson started his career at the UK-based gambling operator in April 2012 as a Priority VIP Account Manager and served as the company’s Head of CRM for the past two years. Now, he switched from the gambling industry to private financial services – he has taken up the role of Interactive Investor’s Head of CRM.

Gary Wilson himself had this to say about his departure from the gambling company: “After almost 9 brilliantly enjoyable years I have taken the decision to leave Sky Betting & Gaming. I consider myself unbelievably fortunate to have been able to share a very successful journey with many extremely talented people and I would like to thank them all for making my experience so rewarding.”

I am excited to be kicking off the next chapter tomorrow as I take on a fresh challenge at Interactive Investor. Looking forward to meeting my new colleagues and getting stuck in.

Established in 1995, Interactive Investor is the company behind an online investment service where users can access exclusive financial information and investment tools themselves for a flat fee of £9.99 a month.

As a part of Sky Betting & Gaming, Wilson was first responsible for “the management of an exclusive group of VIP customers on [the] Sky Vegas product” and “tasked with retaining/growing client base and acquiring competitor wallet share to increase net margin” as the company’s Priority VIP Account Manager. After a year in that position, he made it to a Priority VIP Manager for all five products under the brand of Sky Betting & Gaming (Sky Bet, Sky Vegas, Sky Casino, Sky Poker, Sky Bingo).

In October 2016, Wilson was promoted to Head of High Value, where he was made responsible for “building and growing a new team accountable for high-value commercial performance across all five products (Sky Bet, Sky Vegas, Sky Casino, Sky Poker, Sky Bingo).” Fast forward a year and four months, and he is made Head of Bet & Gaming Customer Relations Management. After spending a year in that position, he was promoted to Head of CRM for the whole company.

Based in Leeds, UK, Sky Betting & Gaming was acquired by the Stars Group via a deal between SBG’s major shareholders, CVC Capital Partners (71%) and Sky PLC (20%), and the Canadian company behind the PokerStars brand back in 2018. The deal cost Stars Group $4.7 billion in cash and stocks – and it created “the world’s largest publicly listed online gaming company.”

Two years later, in May 2020, the Stars Group finalized its merger with Flutter Entertainment, the company behind Paddy Power, an Irish-based betting operator, Australia’s Sportsbet, and FanDuel, a fantasy sports brand. After the merger, Sky Betting & Gaming showed a 26% year-on-year increase in revenues in the third quarter of 2020 – the sports wagering brands under its name brought in £231 million ($316 million).

Sky Betting & Gaming is renowned for its six brands: Sky Bet, Sky Vegas, Sky Casino, Sky Poker, Sky Bingo, and Sky Lotto. Besides them, the company runs Oddschecker, a website where users can compare betting odds, and Soccer Saturday Super 6, a free-to-enter football prediction game.