Today, the former boss of Worldpay, Peter Jackson, is making a fresh start by taking over the position of Chief Executive Officer of Paddy Power Betfair.
Since January 8th, the 42-year-old Mr. Jackson is to officially take over the CEO position from Breon Corcoran, who left the company’s board on January 7th. This is a big step for Peter Jackson, who in March 2017 became boss of the payment processing company Worldpay. Before that, he has a 7-year experience at the position of Chief Executive Officer of Travelex, a foreign exchange group.
It would undoubtedly challenging start for Paddy Power Betfair’s new Chief Executive Officer, as Mr. Jackson would be expected to fill in the place of Mr. Corcoran. After all, it was the latter under who the £7-billion merger deal of Paddy Power and Betfair was carried out in 2016. When announced at the beginning of August 2017, Mr. Corcoran’s departure from the company came as a great surprise to everyone, as it happened unexpectedly.
At the time when the bookmaker announced his Chief Executive Officer’s departure, it saw its shares decline to a 21-month low. It was at the beginning of August, when Paddy Power Betfair officially announced that its boss is to step down and to be replaced by Peter Jackson. At the time when the announcement was made, no official date for the new CEO to take over the position was given.
After taking over the position of Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Jackson is to be based in Dublin. His arrival happens at a time when Morgan Stanley decided to cut its recommendation on the gambling giant to underweight.
Morgan Stanley Downgrades Paddy Power Betfair
In the light of recent appointment of Mr. Jackson as CEO of Paddy Power Betfair, Morgan Stanley said that the gambling operator was a high-quality company which featured “strong technology” as well as strong balance sheet in spite of the fact that the Dublin-based bookmaker was downgraded by the leading international financial services company. The decision of Morgan Stanley to cut its recommendation on the betting operator to underweight was the first time it has taken negative measures since the merger of Paddy Power and Betfair in 2016.
According to Morgan Stanley’s analysts, the gambling market expects to see serious boost in the online revenue growth generated by the Dublin-based company. This is expected to happen after the two gambling businesses which have been acting separately, are integrated together. The firm’s experts said that they have started to see the positive side of the regulatory changes which Australia had made, but they also shared that the Irish bookmaker needed to face certain key issues related to its strategy.
The analysts also predicted that all of this could put some pressure on the premium valuation of the company’s stock.
- Author
Olivia Cole
