GiG Software has announced the immediate departure of chief financial officer Phil Richards, who left the Malta-based B2B igaming platform provider on 2 November after around two and a half years in the role.

In a notice to the market, the company said its board had put transition arrangements in place to maintain continuity across the finance function, including financial reporting and regulatory obligations. Richards will remain available to provide transitional support, and the board has started a search for a successor, with a further update promised in due course.

Chief executive Richard Carter thanked Richards for his work on financial reporting, investor relations and corporate development. Richards said it had been “a privilege to serve as CFO of GiG” and that he was confident the business was well placed for its next phase.

A tight finish to the role

The exit comes only days after GiG reported third-quarter results, which Richards presented. Revenue fell 12% year on year to €8.5m and the net loss for the first nine months widened to €16.9m, according to figures reported by SBC News. On the earnings call Richards said more than a quarter of the workforce had been cut this year, with further savings to follow.

Richards will join Chaos, a design and visualisation technology company, as CFO in December, according to trade press reports.

Background

Richards joined GiG in mid-2024 as CFO for its platform and sportsbook business, tasked with leading the finance function ahead of the planned separation and listing of the B2B unit. That split saw the media and affiliate business sold off and the remaining supplier listed as GiG Software on Nasdaq First North Premier Growth Market, where it trades alongside an OTCQX line in the US.

The change is the second senior departure from GiG’s leadership in a matter of weeks. In October the UK Tote Group named GiG’s chief operating officer James Coxon as its next chief executive.

For investors, the priority will be how quickly a permanent finance chief is found as GiG works through its cost programme and tries to return the platform business to growth, with no successor yet named.

Casinos Austria has confirmed Andreas Bierwirth as its next chief executive, giving the Allwyn-controlled group a new leader as Austria prepares to re-tender the casino and lottery licences that underpin its business.

The supervisory board approved the appointment on Wednesday, according to Austrian business title Leadersnet. Bierwirth, currently the group’s chief transformation officer, will take over as Generaldirektor of Casinos Austria AG on 14 March 2027. He will also chair the management board of Österreichische Lotterien, the lottery subsidiary that holds Austria’s only licensed online gambling concession through its win2day platform.

Bierwirth succeeds Erwin van Lambaart, who said in September that he would not seek to extend his five-year contract, citing changes in the business environment and arguing that a new leadership team would be better placed to manage them. The group ran an international selection process with the help of a recruitment consultant before settling on the internal candidate. The management board will shrink to two members, Bierwirth and Martin Škopek.

From airlines to gaming

Bierwirth joined the Casinos Austria board in October 2025 in a newly created role overseeing the group’s digital direction and innovation strategy. Before that he spent most of his career outside gambling, including senior roles at Lufthansa, Eurowings and Austrian Airlines, a decade running T-Mobile Austria, later Magenta Telekom, from 2012 to 2023, and a spell at Erste Bank.

The choice of an insider with a telecoms and consumer technology background, rather than a gaming industry veteran, reflects where the group sees its pressure points. Online play, both licensed and offshore, is where competition is sharpest. For a business whose land-based and lottery arms share a single national brand, building a stronger digital offer is central to the case it will put to government.

Edith Hlawati, chief executive of state holding company ÖBAG, a minority shareholder in Casinos Austria, welcomed the choice, saying Bierwirth was already familiar with the group’s essential challenges through his transformation role. Allwyn is the majority owner.

Licences in play

Those challenges are considerable. Austria’s federal monopoly model is up for renewal, with the lottery licence, which carries the online gambling concession, due to expire on 30 September 2027 and six of the country’s twelve casino licences at the end of that year, according to Austrian press reports. The remaining casino licences run to 2030.

The Finance Ministry has confirmed it is drafting the legislation for the tender but has not said whether it will keep the single-licensee model, open the market to a limited number of licence holders or move to a broader competitive regime. A leaked draft late last year favoured retaining the monopoly, but international operators have been positioning for a more open market, particularly online, where unlicensed offshore brands remain active.

Taking office in March 2027 leaves Bierwirth months, rather than years, before the lottery concession expires. His digital background is likely to be central to Casinos Austria’s pitch as it seeks to defend win2day against licensed and unlicensed competition. The tender legislation is now the main thing to watch.

Sir Philip Davies, the former Conservative MP and one-time joint chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Betting and Gaming, has joined the board of the British Horseracing Authority (BHA), racing’s governing and regulatory body. The BHA confirmed the appointment in a statement on 12 October.

Davies joins as the Racecourse Association’s (RCA) Member Nominated Director on an interim basis. He replaces Wilf Walsh, who had held one of the RCA’s two nominated seats on the BHA board since October 2021. The BHA did not give an end date for the interim arrangement.

Under the BHA’s Articles of Association, the racecourse member appoints two directors with practical experience of the horseracing industry. Davies joined the RCA board earlier this year.

A familiar voice for racing and betting

Davies was MP for Shipley in West Yorkshire from 2005 until 2024. Alongside his APPG for Betting and Gaming role, he was vice chair of the APPG for Racing and Bloodstock.

Since leaving the Commons he has built a portfolio of roles across racing and greyhounds. He is chairman of the Greyhound Board of Great Britain (GBGB), a post he took up in September 2025, and chairman of the National Horseracing College in Doncaster. He is also a former board member of the Racehorse Owners Association.

BHA chair Simon Cox said Davies had been a strong advocate for racing and betting throughout his parliamentary career. “Throughout his time in Parliament he was a strong advocate for racing and betting, helping to ensure the interests of our sport were understood by his fellow politicians,” Cox said in the BHA’s announcement. Cox also thanked Walsh for his contribution over the past five years.

Davies said he was delighted to be joining the board “to represent the interests of racecourses”, adding that he looked forward to working with stakeholders across the sport to support its long-term success.

The appointment was not without friction. The Racing Post reported that the RCA had originally put forward Arena Racing Company chief executive Martin Cruddace and York racecourse chair Bridget Guerin for its two board places, and that Cox pushed back on both over potential conflicts of interest arising from their racecourse roles. Neither the BHA nor the RCA addressed that account in the official announcement. Cox, a former Molson Coors executive, took over as BHA chair this month and, according to the Racing Post, was due to chair his first board meeting this week.

Tax and affordability checks at the top of the agenda

Davies arrives as racing grapples with the fallout from a turbulent period of fiscal and regulatory change. In the November 2025 Budget, the government abandoned plans for a single harmonised tax on remote betting and gaming. Instead, according to HM Revenue and Customs guidance, Remote Gaming Duty rose from 21% to 40% from 1 April 2026, and a new 25% rate for remote general betting will apply from 1 April 2027.

Remote bets on UK horseracing were excluded from that increase and remain at 15%. The government justified the carve-out on the basis that bookmakers already pay 10% of their racing profits into the Horserace Betting Levy, giving racing bets an effective 25% rate. The exemption followed the BHA’s “Axe the Racing Tax” campaign, which included an unprecedented sport-wide strike on 10 September 2025. Official figures put the overall gambling duty package at more than £1bn a year in additional revenue by the end of the decade.

Racing’s other major battle has been over financial risk checks. On 7 July 2026, the Gambling Commission confirmed it would introduce Financial Risk Assessments in stages. The first phase will apply to the largest operators when a customer reaches £5,000 in net deposits within 24 hours. Once fully in place, checks would trigger at £1,000 in 24 hours or £3,000 over 90 days for customers aged 25 and over, with lower limits for under-25s. No date has been set for full implementation.

BHA chief executive Brant Dunshea said at the time that the authority was “hugely disappointed” by the decision and warned of severe financial consequences for the sport, arguing the checks would push punters towards the illegal market.

The BHA has said it will work with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Gambling Commission and the betting industry to limit the impact of the checks as they are rolled out. With the tax settlement for racing secured for now but affordability checks still to be phased in, Davies’s parliamentary experience on both betting and racing gives the racecourse side of the sport a seasoned political voice on the BHA board at a sensitive moment.