Leading sportsbooks all over the world have recently been busy reshuffling their top brass and when it comes to the appointment of chief operating officer in any sports betting operator, Ladbrokes is the one who catches the most experienced talent first. Yes, they have now hired the renowned Paul Cherry as their chief executive in place of Dean Shannon. Though the appointment will be in force February next year when Shannon will step down the position he has been on since the inception of the business. Although reason for this major reshuffle at the top has not been disclosed by anyone since Shannon is the founder of Bookmaker.com.au which was later sold to Ladbrokes and he was expected to continue on this job until his retirement, but close sources hint there has recently been a dispute regarding various issues like expansion and deals with various service providers that forced Shannon to part his ways.
Talking about his journey with the betting giant and his retirement from the post, Shannon said, “I have enjoyed my time in the bookmaking sector and am very proud of what we have built and achieved in the Australian market. The business has an experienced management team that is passionate about sports betting and focused on results and I firmly believe that the Ladbrokes story has much further to run.
“Paul is a talented executive and the natural choice and I am pleased that he will be given the chance to maintain Ladbrokes Australia’s momentum.”
Likewise, Jim Mullen, chief executive of Ladbrokes, also shared some good words about him when added: “We always knew the day would come when Dean would want to step down. He has been instrumental to the success of Ladbrokes in Australia. He has established a challenger brand and won customers through innovation; his success can be seen in the customer metrics and in the fact we are now the No.3 recognised brand from a standing start just three years ago.
“Paul Cherry has been core to Ladbrokes success and has been a key part of the management team since we acquired the business; we are proud of what has been achieved in Australia and are confident in the ability of the team to take the business forward to the next stage of growth and strategic development.”