Entain has announced that the company’s CEO Gavin Isaacs has stepped down from his role with immediate effect “by mutual agreement”.

Isaacs leaves Entain after just five months, after assuming the position at the beginning of September last year.

Reflecting on his short tenure during the latest episode of iGaming Daily, Joe Streeter, Editor of iGaming Expert, said that Isaacs should “look back on it with pride” as he returned the company to growth.

“There was a positive outlook for the future, he did have a positive impact on the company and his appointment was also met very well by investors,” added Joe. 

Paddy Power’s legal tussle

Elsewhere in the episode, Joe, alongside SBC’s Project Director, Martyn Elliott, also delved deeper into a potentially landmark court case involving Paddy Power.

The operator’s terms and conditions will come under scrutiny as a customer alleges she won the Monster Jackpot of over £1m on the Wild Hatter game but instead was credited £20,000 after the operator said a “mismatch” had occurred.

Paddy Power have stated that the error occurred between the result determined by Paddy Power’s central computers and the one that appeared on screen. The operator’s terms and conditions state that the central computer is the integral factor when it comes to the outcome of games.

The case, Martyn explained, could have greater implications for the wider iGaming industry if the judge rules that operators can’t rely on terms and conditions to cover such technical errors.

Joe added: “It creates this question about what iGaming is as well. The barrister of the player has said the rules say that what you see is what you get, whereas Paddy Power has said online slots is a wallpaper and what’s really going on is on this computer.”

Catena Media

Later on in the episode, the duo also talked about the latest results from Catena Media. Revenue in Q4 2024 fell by 30% to 10.2m and new depositing customers for the firm dropped by 19%.

Updating investors, Catena’s CEO Manuel Stan cited back-to-back Google updates in November and December as crucial factors in elevated volatility during the quarter.

The function of search engines is changing due to the growing prominence of AI-powered overviews and has caused significant problems for websites, such as affiliates, that rely on search engine optimisation. 

“You can see that search queries that generate an AI overview as the first result have much lower click-through rates than ones that don’t,” explained Martyn.

“That’s even more true on pay-per-click advertising. So there is a danger coming for all affiliates that rely solely on search engines. If you’ve given Google quite significant control of your business and the success of your business, then it’s probably time to think a little bit again.”