Former NFL SVP Julie Haddon reaffirms commitment to North America growth while Ian Tibot joins from William Hill to lead sports betting growth
London, Thursday 11 August 2022 — Future Anthem, the pioneering AI and data science powerhouse, has continued its expansion plans with the double hire of Julie Haddon and Ian Tibot.
Haddon joins Future Anthem as a non-executive member of the Board of Directors, bringing substantial experience having worked in top-level management at host of world-renowned US companies.
She most recently served as Senior Vice President, Global Brand and Consumer Marketing at the National Football League (NFL). In addition to her five years at the NFL, Julie has held high-level positions and consulting stints at PayPal, Twitter, eBay, DreamWorks, SoFi and Zynga.
Haddon strengthens the Future Anthem board that includes founder and CEO Leigh Nissim and non-executive Oliver Hansard, former Dunnhumby and Liberty Global executive.
“This is an exciting time to be part of an exciting AI and data business,” said Haddon. “Future Anthem is built on firm foundations with a standout executive team, and is on an impressive growth trajectory having eclipsed many business milestones. I look forward to helping Leigh and the team double down on that rapid progress to help Future Anthem scale as it enters North America”
Also joining Future Anthem is Ian Tibot, who moves into the role of Chief Product Officer. He arrives with notable pedigree, having built a strong reputation at William Hill, where he spent nine years.
At William Hill Tibot was responsible for the bookmaker’s sportsbook platform as Head of Product and previously international product development for gaming and sports, working across multiple regulated markets, leading over 100 team members in three European locations.
“The combination of Future Anthem’s achievements to date, alongside its vision and future ambitions made it an easy decision to join,” said Tibot. “Future Anthem’s must-have, market-leading solutions will allow us to shake up the sports vertical and capitalise on the success in gaming.”
Future Anthem CEO Nissim said: “Bringing Julie and Ian into the business is a real statement of intent. They are transformational appointments that will enhance our ways of working and are key to realising our expansion plans following our recent investment.
“Julie’s invaluable Brand and Marketing leadership experience at blue-chip international technology, media and sports organisations will significantly accelerate our roll-out in North America and we now have a fantastic, well-balanced board with hugely relevant knowledge in a number of key areas.
“Ian’s background fuels our momentum in sports betting - with his addition allowing Future Anthem to lead the charge in personalisation in this area, as we make additional R&D investment to capitalise on the opportunity in sport.
“We continue to proactively identify and bring in the best talent across the business. We have several hires planned, including a General Manager, Americas, and multiple roles in our product team. Meanwhile, our rolling intern programme goes from strength to strength.”
The appointments come just weeks after Future Anthem closed a Series A round of financing led by Bettor Capital. The funding allows the company to build continued momentum across existing products and customers, establish a US-based headquarters, and build a local team of sales, product, data, and delivery specialists to service the rapidly expanding North and Latin American markets.
The funding will also allow Future Anthem to significantly scale its machine learning models and AI products, expand its leadership position in online casino, and expand further into sports betting and other verticals.
About Future Anthem
Future Anthem humanises data with AI to personalise the player experience for everyone, with quick-to-deploy modules across the entire player journey, utilising machine learning in real time to onboard and retain customers responsibly.
Future Anthem’s Amplifier AI product is powered by Microsoft Azure and Anthemetrics – the world’s first data science platform built for the gambling industry, which has processed more than 170 billion player transactions and includes the largest independent behavioural dataset of players globally.
Trusted by the world’s leading gambling operators and studios – including Bally’s, Betfred, Big Time Gaming, Blueprint Gaming and Paddy Power Betfair – Anthem was named Data & AI Partner of the Year at the 2022 EGR B2B Awards and Software Rising Star in 2021. Future Anthem was also selected for the highly coveted Tech Nation Applied AI 3.0 Growth Programme.