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The chief executive of Entain has left the business in a surprise move just five months after joining the owner of bookmakers Ladbrokes and Coral.
Britain’s biggest bookmaker said Gavin Isaacs was leaving by mutual agreement, and with immediate effect. Entain’s share price fell by nearly 11% on the news.
Isaacs, 60, an Australian lawyer with 25 years of experience across the global sports betting, gaming and lottery industries, had come out of semi-retirement and relocated from Las Vegas to run the FTSE 100-listed company in September.
It is unclear what Isaacs will do next. It is understood that his departure was not related to the group’s strategy or performance.
The sports betting and gambling company will be run again on an interim basis by Stella David, the chair, until a permanent chief executive is found. She also assumed the role of interim chief executive for nine months during the previous CEO search.
Pierre Bouchut, a senior independent director, will act as interim chair of the company, which is valued at more than £4bn.
In a short statement, David said: “Entain is making strong progress in delivering our strategic priorities. We would like to thank Gavin for his contribution.”
This means that David, on an interim basis, is one of a small group of female chief executives at FTSE 100 companies, of which only 10 are run by a woman.
The company, which also owns the Gala, Foxy Bingo and PartyPoker brands, said it expects underlying profits to hit the top end of the £1.04bn to £1.09bn forecast range for 2024. Entain said it was “comfortable” with market expectations of £1.1bn profits for the coming year.
Analysts at Goodbody described Isaacs’s departure as “disappointing,” which they said created “another period of uncertainty around management”.
“The group spent nine months to hire Gavin Isaacs, and by all accounts he was regarded as a strong candidate by stakeholders,” they wrote.
They also said David was very well regarded when she previously held the role and “as such is a safe pair of hands”.
Entain’s results for 2022 are under investigation by the Financial Reporting Council, which is scrutinising the audit conducted by KPMG.
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In 2023, Entain fell into the red with an after-tax loss of £879m after spending £585m to settle an investigation into alleged bribery at a former Turkish business, and taking an impairment charge of £1990m on its Australian business. UK authorities had investigated possible bribery offences by one of its former Turkish subsidiaries, which was sold in 2017.
Two months ago, the Australian regulator Austrac said it was bringing civil penalty proceedings against Entain.
The company was accused of “serious and systemic” non-compliance with Australia’s anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws, and not having the right procedures in place to spot and block criminals from using its sites. It is unclear what fines could arise but Entain has said the costs could be “material” and the uncertainty unsettled investors.
Entain said in December it had cooperated fully with Austrac throughout the investigation and embarked on a programme to overhaul its Australian systems and processes, due to be completed in June.
