FanDuel Goes All-In on Executives as Online Gaming Grows

FanDuel Group likes online gaming’s odds for continued growth and just bet big on two important pieces of its management team. The company just promoted Christian Genetski, its former chief legal officer, to president after he spent years working with regulators, legislators and other gaming executives to help legalize and structure sports betting throughout the United States. Mike Raffensperger, FanDuel’s former chief marketing officer, enters a newly created chief commercial officer position. Both will report to FanDuel CEO Amy Howe. “It cannot be overstated how seminal both Christian and Mike have been to not only the success of FanDuel but to the industry more broadly,” Howe said. “Each has helped nurture and evolve FanDuel from innovative upstart to the dominant market leader in sports betting and i-gaming. I am delighted to expand their roles as we continue into the future.” Genetski’s fingerprints are on many of the changes to FanDuel and daily fantasy sports (DFS) in recent years. He helped reach a deal with the New York State Attorney General’s office that led New York State—and 20 others—to legalize and regulate DFS. That move eventually led to the repeal of the Professional Amateur Sports Protection Act by the Supreme Court in 2018 and helped FanDuel shift into sports and online betting. Within the last four years, Genetski pushed the industry to open mobile sports betting in 15 states and make it a referendum item in California this November. At the same time, he built FanDuel’s official partnerships with the National Basketball Association, National Football League, National Hockey League and PGA Tour—as well as numerous pro sports franchises. As president, Genetski will be in charge of FanDuel’s business development, partnerships, corporate strategy and government affairs. Raffensperger, meanwhile, adds FanDuel’s commerce business to his marketing duties. Known for bringing sports personality and WWE commentator Pat McAfee into the fold as a spokesperson and naming sports radio personality Craig Carton as the company’s first Responsible Gaming Ambassador, Raffensperger now takes over some of Howe’s duties. His new list of tasks includes overseeing revenue generation from FanDuel’s sportsbook, casino, racing, daily fantasy and free-to-play platforms and controlling FanDuel’s content and programming—including cable network TVG. A subsidiary of large Irish gaming consortium Flutter entertainment, FanDuel Group operates in 50 states and has approximately 17 million customers. The company is based in New York— with offices in California, New Jersey, Florida, Oregon, Georgia and Scotland—and sees talent retention as essential for future expansion. “Keeping Christian’s deep institutional knowledge within FanDuel was critically important to me,” Howe said. “Similarly, Mike’s leadership of our revenue producing commercial units and marketing is a structure we believe best positions us for growth and reflects how important his performance has been to our success.” Here Are the Winners of the 4th Hashtag Sports Awards Presented by Budweiser

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FanDuel Goes All-In on Executives as Online Gaming Grows

Christian Genetski and Mike Raffensperger rise to president and chief commercial officer, respectively, as the company considers legal betting’s future

Jason Notte

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Jason Notte