\u201cWe have already seen some huge changes in that space in New Zealand in the last few years since we came on board here and have more changes, like online casino licences, coming in the New Zealand market.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo while we will still have the full knowledge and resources of the huge international business that is Entain behind us, this role has been created to make sure we have a focus on New Zealand and its unique challenges and strengths.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chris Ward has been appointed as Australia managing director and he and Haigh will report into Entain Australia and New Zealand chief executive Andrew Vouris.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese changes position Entain for the next phase of our growth,\u201d Vouris said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey keep us focused on innovating for our customers, strengthen accountability and disciplined execution across both markets, while continuing to strengthen our compliance culture.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Haigh has been entrenched in Entain\u2019s Australian business, he is a Kiwi, born on the North Shore, a graduate of Takapuna Grammar and the University of Auckland, where he studied structural engineering.<\/p>\n
After moving to Australia he worked for Virgin and Foxtel before joining Entain but relished the opportunity to return home two years ago to live in the Waikato with his family. <\/p>\n
\u201cI loved my time in Australia and really value Entain\u2019s Australian business but I am still an All Blacks and Wahs fan,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Haigh is also an avid marathon runner but his love of sport has provided some rollercoaster rides in recent weeks. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe World Cup has been enormous for the TAB here obviously,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe find that one thing the two markets [Australia and New Zealand] share are punters really leaning into huge events and they obviously don\u2019t come any bigger than the World Cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the punters have had some really big results, like Kylian Mbappe scoring twice for France in today\u2019s win over Sweden. That really stings us but there are days we win and days the punters win, which is what it is all about.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has been amazing to watch it all unfold.\u201d<\/p>\n
Entain\u2019s New Zealand business having its own managing director can only be good for its local relationships as running such a dynamic business predominantly from another country presents challenges.<\/p>\n
Haigh will step into the senior role as one of the TAB and Entain\u2019s best-known executives, Sam Moncur, gets set to leave the business.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a privilege to be part of Entain\u2019s journey and to help establish our partnership with TAB NZ,\u201d Moncur said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m incredibly proud of what we\u2019ve achieved together and I leave knowing the business is in great hands with my fellow Kiwi in Chris Haigh.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald\u2019s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world\u2019s biggest horse racing carnivals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe have already seen some huge changes in that space in New Zealand in the last few years…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":504448,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[806,27496,138,3276,21048,46688,251638,30949,38020,13313,251637,7240,130,117,111,43,139,69,90,1523,163989,205,312,1120,4758,2044,80],"class_list":["post-504447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-as","tag-betting","tag-business","tag-chris","tag-couldnt","tag-entain","tag-entains","tag-exciting","tag-focuses","tag-giant","tag-haigh","tag-lead","tag-more","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-over","tag-reins","tag-role","tag-says","tag-takes","tag-taking","tag-time","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}