Rational Group has hired Bo Wänghammar to take care of business at PokerStars Casino, and Poker Central has taken on a raft of new hires including reigning Global Poker Index European Poker Award winner Remko Rinkema.
Rational Group is looking to Bo Wänghammar to turn PokerStars Casino into a world beater.
The parent company of PokerStars hired Wänghammar to fill in the position of Managing Director of PokerStars Casino. He will take control of full business responsibilities and reports directly to Amaya CEO, Rafi Ashkenazi.
Educated at the University of Pennsylvania where he became a genius in the art of finance, marketing and statistics, Wänghammar – who sounds like a pretty cool Dungeons and Dragons character – joins the Red Spade from the online gambling company Mr Green where he served as both CEO and Business Development Director.
Wänghammar also has experience working for one of PokerStars main competitors. The Swede used to work for bwin between 2007-2010 in numerous capacities including bwin.party digital entertainment where he was responsible for the Next Generation Poker project, and launching the brand in Italy.
He takes up his new role on February 1.
Poker Central Hiring; Not Firing
One would expect a series of sackings to come out of Poker Central HQ after the 24/7 dedicated poker TV channel became a 0/0 dedicated poker TV channel on Dec 31, 2016. But they are hiring, not firing.
Speaking at the time of the decision to turn the TV off, Poker Central Prez, Joe Kakaty, did say that they needed to provide their customers with ‘new and original content’ and would move deeper into the digital realm.
Kakaty has backed up his words with some key hires this week. They include:
Remko Rinkema – the current Global Poker Index (GPI) European Poker Award (EPA) winner for Media Person of the Year – and one of the hardest working members of the media takes the Senior Editor role. Amongst his duties, Rinkema will host The Poker Central Podcast and Heads-Up With Remko Podcast. Joining Rinkema in the new poker team will be well-known writers Paul Oresteen and Will O’Connor.
And Poker Central has also made two key hires in production, programming and creative services. Justin Lundstrom joins the team as the new Head of Production and Programming, while Carl Marxer joins as Director of Creative Services.
The new team aim to expand the TV model into innovative online and mobile channels shooting on location in Las Vegas and at events all over the world.
