888 hires ex-Genius Sports exec to lead US business development efforts

888 has appointed former Genius Sports senior commercial partnership manager John Atkinson to the newly created role of director of business development as the operator seeks to expand into new states. Atkinson will lead the London-listed operator’s business development agenda as it launches in additional states and rolls out its Spectate sports betting platform in the US market. Atkinson was Genius Sports’ first US hire in October 2016 as the data provider sought to make an early entry into the market, ahead of PASPAs repeal.

Prior to Genius Sports, Atkinson spent more than three years in sales at ESPN. Atkinson said: “Similar to where Genius Sports was five years ago, 888 is extremely successful globally and has a ton of potential here in the US. “It seemed like a really exciting opportunity to be able to join the team and work to help grow 888 during this really exciting time in the US industry,” he added. 888’s head of US, Yaniv Sherman, told EGR North America Atkinson’s hire came during a major recruitment effort at the operator’s New Jersey headquarters. “Since we last spoke, I think we’ve doubled our workforce,” Sherman said. “Business development is the first new function [we’ve localized] but we’re also looking to expand the marketing functions and grow that team so we can maintain the momentum across the business and push our agenda here in new states, while also growing the existing ones. “I used to oversee the whole business development and commercial and corporate development agenda for the group and we used to execute our business development strategies using our global talent pool, but it’s been long overdue that we have a dedicated US-focused business development function here,” he added. The operator is close to launching in Pennsylvania and Michigan, with the latter state poised to receive the World Series of Poker’s online offering, WSOP.com, powered by 888. “We’re in the final stages of clearances and are aiming to roll out the Spectate platform across new states [soon],” Sherman said. “Naturally, first will be Pennsylvania and we’re hoping to get live in Michigan soon with Caesars for our WSOP partnership.”