Shortly after successfully navigating The Stars Group through a behemoth gambling merger with Flutter Entertainment, the former CEO of the former Canadian online gambling giant, Rafi Ashkenazi, is now stepping into a new iGaming role.
Online gaming B2B marketing platform provider BlueRibbon Software has announced that Mr. Ashkenazi is joining the company as a strategic advisor. The gambling industry veteran is expected to play a “pivotal role in the future successes” of the company as it works to expand its footprint and strengthen its foothold across the highly competitive iGaming landscape.
BlueRibbon is a Malta-based independent marketing platform provider that provides operators with the opportunity to create different forms of player engagement through fully customizable jackpot promotions. The company is licensed by the Malta Gaming Authority, the UK Gambling Commission, and the Romanian National Gambling Office, ONJN.
Ashkenazi’s New Role
With his experience in the gaming industry involving a series of c-suite management roles, Mr. Ashkenazi is anticipated add to BlueRibbon’s strengthening brand and fast-growing online gambling presence as a leading marketing and gamification platform provider across regulated territories around the world.
As mentioned earlier, Mr. Ashkenazi most recently served as Chief Executive Officer of The Stars Group, the Canadian gambling giant that owned major online brands such as PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, Sky Betting & Gaming, and more, and that recently merged with Irish multi-brand gambling powerhouse Flutter Entertainment to form one of the industry’s largest operators with presence across all key regulated markets and a massive customer base.
While at The Stars Group (formerly Amaya), Mr. Ashkenazi served as CEO of the Rational Group, the group’s Isle of Man-based subsidiary that owned the PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker brands, between 2015 and 2016.
In March 2016, he was appointed Interim CEO of The Stars Group (then Amaya) and assumed the role permanently in the fall of 2016.
Mr. Ashkenazi was to be appointed as Chief Operating Officer of the enlarged Flutter Entertainment following the closure of its merger with The Stars Group. However, it was announced this past March that he would not take that position and would instead act as a consultant to the combined group.
Bringing an Insightful Eye into the Business
Commenting on Mr. Ashkenazi joining the BlueRibbon team, Amir Askarov, co-founder and CEO of the marketing platform provider, said that they are “thrilled” to have “such a visionary and gaming specialist share in our passion to provide operators and players alike with innovative, next-level engagement tools.”
Mr. Askarov went on that his company’s new strategic advisor will bring with him “an astounding amount” of industry experience and achievements and “an insightful eye into the business.”
Of his new iGaming role, Mr. Ashkenazi said that he is delighted to be joining a company that has created a value platform and traction with leading tier-one operators in a really short time.
He added that existing engagement tools in newly regulated markets and the sector as a whole are limited and lack the flexibility that operators require, but “through BlueRibbon’s unique and innovative solutions, operators now have the ability to better differentiate their brands and seamlessly adapt to the ever-changing regulatory landscape.”
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