Ladbrokes owner Entain hands the reins to its first female boss
A DANISH video gaming specialist has become the first woman to lead a listed gambling firm in Britain, and the eighth female boss in the FTSE 100.
Jette Nygaard-Andersen was yesterday named chief executive of Entain, the £7.5bn owner of Ladbrokes and Coral, handing her one of the top jobs in a historically masculine industry.
The 52-year-old, who is married and lives in Copenhagen, will replace Shay Segev, who held the job for just six months before quitting dramatically last week in the middle of an £8bn takeover battle with MGM Resorts International.
Her salary will be £750,000 per year, with available bonuses of up to £4.1m, which is 11pc more than Segev received. The only other female chief executive of a major British gambling firm is Denise Coates, the multi-billionaire owner of Bet 365, which is a private company not listed on the stock market. Nygaard-Andersen, a non-executive director at Entain since December 2019, has 20 years’ experience in online entertainment and will be charged with turbo-charging the firm’s expansion into the US as well as fighting against tighter regulation at home.
Chairman Barry Gibson said NygaardAndersen ‘is already deeply immersed in Entain’s strategy, and clearly shares our ambition to be the world-leader in sports betting and gaming entertainment’.
There are seven other female chief executives in the FTSE 100: Alison Brittain at Premier Inn-owner Whitbread, Emma Walmsley at GlaxoSmithKline, Liv Garfield at Severn Trent, Susan Davy at rival Pennon, Milena Mondini de Focatiis at Admiral, Alison Rose at Natwest and Amanda Blanc at Aviva.