888’s boss exits as it suspends Middle East VIP accounts

888 Holdings Plc made several announcements early on Monday, reporting on structural changes in its operations and the exit of its Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director. Itai Pazner will step down as both Group CEO and Director while the Group’s Non Executive Chair, Lord Mendelsohn, will now step up and assume the responsibilities of Executive Chair.

His position is temporary as the Group seeks a permanent candidate. Mendelsohn has commented on the developments and thanked Pazner for his hard work on behalf of the group. Pazner has been one of the building blocks of the 888 brand and identity, having served within the company for more than 20 years, concluding his journey within the ecosystem as a Chief Executive.

"Itai has played a very important role in building a business with powerful proprietary technology and has overseen successful early stages to the William Hill integration process," Mendelsohn explained. Meanwhile, the suspension of the company’s Middle East VIP accounts was announced in a separate filing to the London Stock Exchange on Monday with the company motivating its decision independent of Pazner’s exit.

The company said that it had taken a proactive decision to suspend certain .com markets, citing unsatisfactory findings based on an internal compliance review which found shortcomings in the AML and KYC processes used by the Group for its VIP customers in the Middle East markets. This decision is effective immediately. The Board has also put an initial assessment of how much the decision would cost the company, arguing that 888 stands to lose 3% of its Group revenues should the suspension remain in place. These markets may be restored, 888 confirmed.

Mendelsohn further commented on this as well, falling in line with the company’s position that so far, deficiencies have only been discovered in the suspended markets. Mendelsohn assured that the group had acted in a decisive matter upon discovering the deficiencies involving its VIP customers.

"We will be uncompromising in our approach to compliance as we build a strong and sustainable business," Mendelsohn assured. Amid these developments, 888 confirmed that a previously planned exit for its Chief Financial Officer, Yariv Dafna, has been postponed until the end of 2023. Dafna was due to exit the company on March 31, 2023 – this has now been deferred.

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