STS chair and former Entain M&A director to join GiG Media board
Nicholas Batram is one of three new faces, alongside Mateusz Juroszek, for affiliate’s board of directors ahead of proposed split of the business later this year
Gaming Innovation Group (GiG) has proposed Entain’s former M&A director, Nicholas Batram, to join the firm’s affiliate division board following the split of the business.
GiG is set to divide into two separately listed companies by the end of the year: GiG Media and GiG Sportsbook and Platform.
As part of that process, the firm’s nomination committee has detailed two separate board compositions for each arm which aim to “optimise the growth opportunities for each business entity”.
In terms of the GiG Sportsbook and Platform board, the current makeup of the GiG board will be retained except for BeyondPlay founder Karolina Pelc.
GiG confirmed Pelc has declined to stand for re-election “due to other commitments”. BeyondPlay was snapped up by FanDuel earlier this year in a landmark moment for Pelc and her team.
In turn, the GiG Sportsbook and Platform board will retain Petter Nylander as chair, along with existing members Nicolas Adlercreutz, Mikael Riese Harstad, Hesam Yazdi, Tomasz Juroszek and Steve Salmon.
On the GiG Media front, the nomination committee has reduced the number of board members to five, while adding three new members.
These include former Entain M&A director Nicholas Batram, who left the FTSE 100 giant at the end of last year.
The ex-Peel Hunt analyst originally joined Entain in April 2015 as director of investor relations and external communications before taking on the M&A brief in January 2019.
LOYRA partner and International Centre for Responsible Gaming board member, Cristina Romero de Alba, has also been selected by the nomination committee.
The final fresh face to join the board will be STS chair Mateusz Juroszek, whose family recently took their total shareholding in GiG above the 15% mark.
Speaking to EGR last week, Juroszek said GiG could well make a mark in the US in the future, while adding his family office wants to become one of the largest private investors in the industry.
Riese Harstad and Yazdi will make the up the remainder of the five-person board, with the former to serve as chair.
These changes will be finalised at GiG’s AGM in Stockholm on 22 May. The nomination committee has confirmed full proposals and motivated statements will be released in due course.