Echo Entertainment CTO snapped up by betting giant

Chief technology officer at hotel and casino behemoth Echo Entertainment, Rob James, has resigned to take up a new role as director of IT at betting and gambling company William Hill.

Rob James

The move wraps up James’ two-year career at Echo Entertainment, during which time he was tasked with leading the $1.7 billion company’s IT architecture and strategy across its four casino and hotel properties in Australia, including The Star in Sydney, Jupiters Hotel & Casino on the Gold Coast, Treasury Casino & Hotel in Brisbane and Jupiters Townsville.

In May this year James revealed Echo was looking at using wireless access points and surveillance cameras around The Star to track mobile devices using wi-fi and examine their patterns of behaviour, in order to better address customer needs and more effectively monitor gambling tables.

His new role at UK bookmaker William Hill will involve reshaping the organisation’s IT in response to recent local acquisitions of SportingBet, CentreBet and Tom Waterhouse and a subsequent expansion into the Australian market.

James has a long career in the IT industry. Prior to joining Echo in 2011 he was CTO of social networking startup Posse along with a number of other startups including Spacio.us and Museek.

Echo is understood to be currently looking for a replacement. It did not respond to request for comment by the time of publication.