Entain esports managing director leaves company

Entain esports Managing Director, Justin Dellario, has confirmed in a LinkedIn post that he has left the company after three-and-a-half years on the job.

Entain esports head and unikrn CEO leave company

In a post published on the professional social media network last week, Dellario outlined his journey throughout the world-beating company and what it meant to him personally and professionally.

Dellario was part of Entain’s ambitious push into the esports betting vertical, which has been itself an exciting albeit challenging market.

Although esports betting markets have gone from strength-to-strength, profitability has often proven a challenge, not least with Rivalry, another company, slowing down its own momentum, and once hailed as an esports unicorn.

Entain’s flagship esports betting platform, unikrn, which the company bought in 2021 for £50m according to The Financial Time, has failed to yield the desired results, and plans for a B2C launch have been postponed, with Unikrn shifting to B2B outfit instead.

Commenting on his experience with Entain, Dellario stated this: "Over the past three and a half years, I've had the privilege of gaining new experiences, overcoming challenges, and learning from so many talented individuals. This chapter has been incredibly rewarding, and I'm deeply grateful for the journey."

Dellario thanked the talented employees and colleagues, mentors and friends and Entain, and confirmed that he would now be looking forward to pursuing new opportunities.

Gambling companies find it hard to scale esports betting

Dellario was appointed in the role of a Managing Director in August 2021, and he shortly after took the role of Chief Executive Officer at unikrn in October 2021.

In 2023, however, unikrn confirmed that it will be scaling back its intended B2C operations and redouble its efforts on technology company that provides B2B solutions for the esports vertical.

Entain has had to rethink its strategy under its new leadership and following the exit of Jette Nygaard-Andersen from the job who investors have accused of excessive spending. In hindsight, unikrn could have been one of the questionable acquisitions made by the company.

Dellario previously worked at Twitch where he was VP of Global Esports from January 2016 through July 2021, as well as VP of Original Content.

Esports betting is projected to reach a market size of $3bn by 2028, but the exact market size or its realization is still subject to some speculation. In the meantime, an illicit "skin gambling" esports betting market is going on that has been the cause of headaches for publishers and regulators.

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