Alvarez & Marsal hires Adam Rivers as managing director

Alvarez & Marsal has named Adam Rivers as a managing accomplice in its UK wing. He’ll now head up the agency’s gaming sector crew.

Ed Bignold, head of Alvarez & Marsal’s journey, hospitality and leisure Apply, commented, “Adam’s arrival couldn’t be extra well timed. Together with his wealth of expertise and intensive information of the market, Adam is well-equipped to construct on our work to-date and develop our supply the world over. As A&M’s THL follow continues its enlargement, we’re uniquely positioned to supply our purchasers a world perspective and entrepreneurial method to assist deal with their wants.”

The UK’s betting and gaming business is increasing quickly. A&M is working with purchasers from operators and regulators, who require recommendation to react to and take advantage of the chance. As a managing director heading up the crew, Adam Rivers will leverage his expertise in regulatory, strategic, and compliance advisory, appearing for each private and non-private sector purchasers.

Rivers joins A&M from KPMG, the place he led the agency’s playing sector consultancy work. His work coated a broad vary of disciplines, together with industrial technique and sophisticated analytics, regulatory technique and coverage improvement, regulatory compliance and industrial due diligence in M&A. He’s a famend thought chief within the sector and common speaker at conferences throughout the globe.

Talking on the information, Rivers added, “I am delighted to be spearheading A&M’s betting and gaming supply from the London workplace. The agency’s distinctive world platform, which is unbiased and freed from sure conflicts, will allow us to proceed growing our market-leading follow.”

Because the playing business undergoes “fast evolution”, Rivers additionally famous that A&M’s purchasers “are grappling with a myriad of challenges, together with regulatory shifts, technological developments and altering client behaviour”. He famous that it might be “essential for corporations within the sector to adapt to those modifications, to assist keep their efficiency and place themselves for long-term success and profitability”.

UK’s playing behavior

The UK playing business is among the largest markets on this planet, producing roughly £14.2 billion in 2020 alone. A part of the “fast evolution” of the sector has seen it account for 40% of shirt sponsors within the Premier League. Amid a rising variety of high-profile circumstances through which footballers themselves have develop into hooked on playing, concern for the broader inhabitants has led to requires wider guidelines on the place playing might be marketed.

In a bid to keep away from market intervention, the Premier League has introduced motion towards playing sponsorship. The league agreed with its golf equipment to ban playing corporations from being on ‘the entrance of match day shirts’ – stating the rule would come into play from the top of the 2025/26 season, to “help golf equipment with their transition away” from playing front-of-shirt sponsors. For some, which may be too little, too late, although.

In response to the UK Playing Fee’s newest figures, as many as 1.3 million adults in Nice Britain endure from downside betting. That’s eight-times larger than beforehand estimated.