Elys Game Technology names former Sportradar US President as new CEO

Elys Game Technology, an interactive gaming and sports betting technology company recently rebranded from Newgioco, on Wednesday announced the appointment of Matteo Monteverdi as Chief Executive Officer, effective January 1, 2021.

He served as an independent strategic advisor to the company since March 2020, and in September 2020 was appointed President. Outgoing CEO Michele Ciavarella will continue in his current role as Executive Chairman of the company.

Monteverdi has been leading world-class B2B and B2C teams in the technology and digital industry for over 20 years between Silicon Valley and Boston. He spent the last decade of his career at the intersection of social gaming, digital betting, i-gaming and media working for international organizations in high growth segments.

Prior to joining Elys, Monteverdi served as the US President of Sportradar, a global leader in real-time sports data and analytics, where he led the strategic direction of the company in the newly regulated US betting market. He was a key contributor in signing exclusive distribution deals with the NBA, NFL and MLB while turning around the company’s US media products and business. From 2015 to 2018, he served as SVP Global Digital Products for International Gaming Technology (IGT), where he led the real money and social gaming global businesses. He played a pivotal role in the $6 billion acquisition of IGT by GTECH by integrating and accelerating the combined digital businesses, positioning the new organization as the prime digital gaming B2B player in US.

While at GTECH, the largest B2C lottery operator in the world and leading gaming technology provider based in Rome and Boston, he covered the roles of SVP of Sales and Trade Marketing, President of the Digital & Sport Betting Unit and SVP iGaming and iLottery B2B Products.

Monteverdi also served as Entrepreneur-in-Residence and Venture Partner at Innogest Capital, an early-stage Venture Capital firm, and worked as VP Products and Marketing for Promptu Systems, a mobile SW voice recognition and AI company co-located in SRI (Stanford Research Institute). He holds an MBA from SDA Bocconi, a Law Degree from Milan University, and a specialization in Marketing from Stanford Graduate Business School.

“We are honored to welcome one of most accomplished and recognized gaming executives in the industry to our team,” stated Michele Ciavarella, Chairman and CEO of Elys Game Technology, Corp. “Matteo brings over 20 years of industry experience, including an amazing track record in the betting, gaming and technology sectors. In the short time since joining the Company, he has already demonstrated his leadership and continuous innovation. We believe his experience in driving organic revenue growth, combined with his background in M&A, will help accelerate growth in both our online and land-based retail channels.”

Monteverdi commented: “Over the past 9 months, I have had an opportunity to fully immerse myself with the Elys team, customers, and technologies. I can confidently state that Elys has built a first-class operation with a strong product foundation and has tremendous potential waiting to be unleashed. Given the convergence of shifts in the US regulatory landscape and technological innovation, Elys is positioned to capitalize on emerging trends as sports betting evolves into new forms of entertainment at the intersection of media and gaming. The Company offers a differentiated omni-channel framework that provides a distinct competitive advantage in this market. Overall, I believe Elys has the potential to become a market leader and capture a significant share of the i-gaming and sports betting markets in Europe and the Americas.”