BuddyBet enter sports betting; Plumbee appoint Facebook expert; PokerStars make appointment

news-in-brief-may-21Social betting operator BuddyBet has tied up 180 sports news sites as it starts to advance preparations for a sports betting network on a global scale. The cash-based Isle of Man-licensed operator elevated their licence to the network version and followed that up by signing their first partner deal with football community site FootyMad. That allows for integration of their product and is an important deal considering the platform works by allowing users to bet against other forum/news site members. eGR revealed the news earlier today and chief executive Jarrod Epps explained the concept further by adding: “There is always the issue of people trusting a start-up for their first deposit, but within our partners’ websites their players will be able to go to their own ‘Fan vs Fan’ section which retains their branding but is in fact just a reskinned version of BuddyBet.”

Social casino developer Plumbee has appointed Samer Ragheb as their new marketing director. Ragheb joins the company from Facebook where he was a key member of the EMEA Platform Partnerships team that were responsible for gaming. He has also had a number of different roles in the advertising industry and CEO Raf Keustermans, on the appointment, commented: “I don’t know anyone who knows more about the Facebook platform from a marketing perspective than him, he is a top notch expert in both web and mobile marketing, understands free-to-play gaming, has both analytical marketing and brand experience and he is also one of the nicest guys in the industry.”

PokerStars has appointed Lee Jones as its new head of poker communications. The long-time spokesperson and forum dweller fits into the newly created position working alongside Eric Hollreiser, head of corporate comms and Michael Josem, head of PR. Explaining more on the role was Hollreiser, who told pokerfuse: “Lee Jones will be an evangelist for PokerStars products and services, staying very involved in the product teams and serving as a spokesperson and ambassador for the game” to key audiences.