Rational Group Promotes Rafi Ashkenazi As CEO

Rafi Ashkenazi
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  • PG News November 4, 2015
  • 2 Minutes Read

In a breaking news report, Canadian conglomerate Amaya has promoted Rafi Ashkenazi (cover image) to take over as Chief Executive Officer of its subsidiary, the Rational Group.

While the promotion of Ashkenazi seems an ordinary corporate move, speculation is that the promotion is more to do with the removal of chief executive and former Rational Group chief financial officer Michael Hazel, who was one of the four officers, asked to be sacked by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE), as one of the conditions for the re-entry of PokerStars into the state.

Ashkenazi had originally been COO with Playtech, after which he had joined Rational Group in Jan 2013, as Chief Operating Officer, long before it was taken over, by Amaya last Aug.

The Rational Group operates the world’s most popular sites, PokerStars and Full Tilt, which are the flagship brands of the company today.

In his earlier role, Ashkenazi had been responsible for the complete back-office functions and customer-serving products for both, PokerStars and Full Tilt.

Ashkenazi will officially take up his new position on Nov 9, with Hazel aiding in the handover of position, before departing from the company.

David Baazov, CEO, Amaya commented on the change saying, “Rafi has been working very closely this year with our executive management team and returns to Rational Group with an even greater knowledge of our corporate strategy, vision and goals.”

Speaking of new position, Baazov added, “Combining this knowledge with his operational expertise makes him an ideal leader for the Rational Group.”

Ashkenazi stated that “I look forward to re-joining the excellent team at Rational Group and working with them to continue to extend our leadership in online gaming.”

Going on to talk about future plans, he said, “We have great opportunities in the near future with our upcoming launch in New Jersey, the expansion of our casino and sports-betting businesses and our mission to grow the poker category.”

A little while back there had been rumors that the New Jersey DGE had asked Amaya to sack four officers, who had not been named in order to acquire the license to operate in the state.

It is believed that Hazel was one among the four, along with interim COO Israel Rosenthal, Amaya Software general manager Serge Bourenkov and Amaya NJ CTO Charles Fabian.

However, during the announcement of Ashkenazi’s promotion, Amaya revealed that Rosenthal would remain with the company. It was reported that Rosenthal would be working under Ashkenazi, along with Guy Templar, Dir, Business Dev & Strategy and that all the three would operate out of the company’s headquarters at the Isle of Man.

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