OpenBet Promotes Nikos Konstakis to Chief Executive as Jordan Levin Moves to Chair

The supplier has picked an insider of eight years to run a business it bought back from Endeavour last year. Konstakis takes over at the end of December, a week after the OmniLogic acquisition and a summer in which OpenBet processed more than 175 million World Cup bets.

• OpenBet has appointed Nikos Konstakis as chief executive with effect from the end of the current calendar year, NEXT.io reports
• He replaces Jordan Levin, who moves to the role of chairman after more than five years as chief executive and will continue to play an active part in shaping long-term strategy
• Konstakis has been OpenBet's president for the past nine months, joined the company in September 2021 and has served as chief operating officer and group chief product officer, with an earlier spell as vice president trading from November 2017 to March 2018 and three and a half years at SG Digital in between
• Before that he spent more than eight years at Intralot, including as group director of betting and group head of product and trading, and eight years at Betting Company, now part of Intralot
• The appointment follows last week's agreement to acquire the lottery sportsbook supplier OmniLogic for an undisclosed sum, and a World Cup in which OpenBet processed over 175 million bets and took $3bn in wagers; the group moved to new ownership last year after a management buyout from Endeavour Holdings during that company's take-private deal

An Internal Promotion at a Company That Has Just Bought Itself Back

OpenBet has a new chief executive from the end of December. Nikos Konstakis, the supplier's president for the past nine months, takes over from Jordan Levin, who becomes chairman after more than five years in the job and will stay involved in long-term strategy, NEXT.io reports.

Konstakis has been inside the business for most of a decade, in two spells. He first joined as vice president trading between November 2017 and March 2018, spent three and a half years at SG Digital, and returned in September 2021, moving through chief operating officer and group chief product officer before being made president. Before OpenBet he spent more than eight years at Intralot as group director of betting and group head of product and trading, and eight years at Betting Company, which is now part of Intralot. It is a trading and product career rather than a commercial or finance one.

"It's a privilege to take on this role and lead the business at such an exciting time," Konstakis said. "We have an exceptional customer base, a great team and significant opportunities ahead of us. My focus will be on building on those strengths, bringing even greater pace and focus to the business and making sure we continue to set the standard in the markets we serve."

Levin called him "instrumental" in the group's recent evolution. "He knows our business, our customers and our technology inside out, and has played a central role in shaping our priorities and how we execute against them," he said. "Nikos has been a true confidante and partner in the business since coming on board over eight years ago."

The timing is not accidental. Last week OpenBet agreed to acquire the lottery sportsbook supplier OmniLogic, which Konstakis said would add "proven technology, specialist expertise and established customer partnerships". Over the summer the group processed more than 175 million bets and took $3bn in wagers during the World Cup. And the company itself changed hands last year, when management bought it out of Endeavour Holdings as that group went private.

A Management Buyout Rarely Hires an Outsider Next

When the people running a business have just bought it, the succession question answers itself. An external chief executive would arrive with a mandate to reconsider a strategy the owners have already backed with their own money, which is not what anyone involved wants. Promoting the president and moving the outgoing chief executive to the chair keeps the plan and the people who wrote it, and it tells customers in the middle of multi-year platform contracts that nothing they depend on is about to be reviewed. The cost of that continuity is that nobody in the room is obliged to ask whether the plan is right.

Lottery-Adjacent Sportsbook Is the Lane OpenBet Has Chosen

OmniLogic supplies sportsbook to lottery operators, and that is a specific bet. State and national lotteries are adding sports betting under monopoly or near-monopoly conditions in several markets, they buy on long procurement cycles, and they are less exposed to the marketing economics that squeeze commercial operators. For a supplier whose largest customers are commercial sportsbooks in taxed and competitive markets, a second customer type with different buying behaviour is a sensible hedge. Konstakis inherits the integration.

The World Cup Number Is the Benchmark He Has to Beat

175 million bets and $3bn in wagers through the platform in a single tournament is the kind of figure a supplier quotes for years, and it is also a ceiling to be measured against. The next comparable event is four years away, so the growth between now and then has to come from new customers, from OmniLogic's lottery channel and from share of wallet inside existing accounts. That is a harder story to tell than a tournament, and it is the one the new chief executive owns.

OpenBet has chosen continuity at the top of a business its managers now own. The interesting question is what the chairman does with the strategy he is no longer executing.