Jan Svendsen, founder of Coolbet, is none too happy with GAN, where he is a shareholder. Svendsen recently made posts on social media saying that he wants to replace GAN’s current board as well as CEO Dermot Smurfit.
The company delivered underwhelming results while management collected nice salaries and bonuses, according to IGaming NEXT.
Published on Reddit and LinkedIn, Svendsen unleashed his version of events around GAN’s purchase of Estonian and his own company, Coolbet. He left his company after he turned down a position as office manager in Spain last year.
That was “not a big problem,” he said. “My problem now is that I currently hold 840,000 shares at GAN and know personally that the leadership team at GAN is non-effective and the board is weak.”
At the time of writing, GAN’s $3.35 share price gives Svendsen’s stake in the business a valuation of $2.8 million. At GAN’s 52-week high share price of $18.48, the shares would be worth $15.5 million.
“I don’t think the board is very professional at GAN,” Svendsen wrote. “From what I heard, the chair is an old friend of the Smurfit family. Dermot Smurfit’s uncle also serves on the board. In addition, the CFO of GAN, Karen Flores, serves on the board.
“In my opinion, one of the responsibilities of the board is to look after GAN’s money; it does not seem wise to have the CFO serve on the board. My general impression is that the board is weak and more like a “yes Dermot” board.”
He particularly laid into the IT team, although he said new CTO Jan Roos—a former Coolbet employee— “has done a good job of trying to clean up the ineffective mess that was inherited at GAN.”
Still, he didn’t think executives like the CFO should serve on the board looking after GAN’s money.
Coolbet accounted for an increase in full-year revenue to $125.4 million, compared to just $35.2 million in 2020.
“2021 was a horrible year for GAN; GAN did not deliver on the bottom line and the share price dropped significantly. Regardless, the leadership team gave themselves huge bonuses. Why? Aren’t bonuses something you should pay out when you produce positive results?”
The development of GAN Sports, a B2B solution built on Coolbet’s software, should guide GAN into new B2B markets.
“But using so many resources from Coolbet to clean up the GAN B2B mess also comes with a price for B2C. The growth of Coolbet is slowing down a lot, and that may not be so smart when Coolbet is the only part of GAN that is making the money.”
“It is a company with great potential because of what Coolbet brings to the table. We need a leader who can collect the troops and who respects all the employees of the company. Someone who can keep up the quality and be more vigilant about spending money.”
“I must be very clear that this is posted only from me as a worried shareholder. I don’t have any ambition or intention to have a management or director role in GAN,” Svendsen said.
