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Amanda Brown has become the latest member of Entain’s senior leadership team, joining the company as a Non-Executive Director (NED) at a time of global expansion across multiple markets.
The new hire will also become a member of the FTSE100 gambling group’s Remuneration Committee, working alongside Committee Chair, Stella David, and fellow NEDs Virginia McDowell and Rahul Welde.
Prior to joining Entain, Brown has been serving as an NED and Chair of the Remuneration Committee at pub and restaurant group Mitchells and Butlers whilst also holding the same position at the Manchester Airport Group. Her previous roles include a tenure as Chief Human Resources Officer at LSE-listed insurance provider Hiscox plc,
Barry Gibson, Chairman of Entain, said: “On behalf of the Board, I am delighted to welcome Amanda to Entain. Amanda brings a wealth of international business and board experience. I am confident that her skills and expertise will further enhance the Board’s ability to support and oversee the delivery of our strategy.”
Brown joins Entain as the company continues to keep up momentum on its strategy of international growth whilst also having to navigate numerous changing regulatory environments across the global scope of its operations.
This includes the – like many other firms with interests in the country – the implementation of the Gambling Act review in the UK, where Entain is active both online and on the high-street via its Ladbrokes and Coral omnichannel brands.
Internationally, the group has made progress in Eastern Europe via its acquisition of Polish market leader STS Group for £750m, although recent developments have included a downsizing of its B2C esports platform Unikrn, acquired in 2021.
Financially, the company seems to be in good standing according to its H1 interim results, recording revenue of £2.4bn, up 14% on H1 2022 results of £2.1bn.
However, these results were overshadowed to some extent by a HMRC investigation into the legacy Turkish operations of GVC Holdings – the company’s corporate identity and structure prior to rebranding as Entain in 2020 – for which the group has reserved a £585m provision for settlement.
Group leadership has stressed that Entain is a different company to the one which operated under the GVC umbrella, which Gibson stressed ‘had a different management team, a different strategy, and to be blunt, different standards’ during an investors call following its H1 earnings call.
The group is due to announce its financial results for Q3 2023 later this week (Thursday 2 November).
