Béraud appointed president of BetClic Everest

Nicolas Béraud, the founder of BetClic, has been named the new president of the BetClic Everest Group.

He replaces Stéphane Courbit, founder and former chairman of the group which changed its name from Mangas Gaming in November. Courbit has stepped down after more than two years in the role.

Béraud set up BetClic in 2005, selling the bookmaker to Courbit’s Mangas group in 2008, and had been CEO of the group since March last year. In his new role, he will be tasked with overseeing the management of the four companies under BetClic Everest’s control: Everest Gaming, BetClic, Bet-at-Home and Expekt.

In addition to serving as CEO of the BetClic Everest Group, Béraud was interim CEO of Expekt following the departure of Per Widerström in December 2009.

He is not the only member of the group to move into a new role. Former vice-chairwoman Isabelle Parize is now the new chief of the group’s skill games site SkillStar.com, while Jean-Laurent Nabet has been named as the new chairman of the group’s holding company, which is split evenly between Stéphane Courbit’s Lov Group and high-end hotel owners Societe des Bains de Mer.

Courbit’s influence within BetClic Everest will not be entirely eliminated. Lov Group still controls 50% of the group’s holding company, whose new chairman Nabet has worked alongside the 45-year-old entrepreneur since joining Lov Group in 2008.

BetClic Everest rose three places to fourth in eGR’s 2010 Power 50, but moves to regulate European markets – and the French market in particular – have grated with the group’s management.

In an interview with French newspaper Le Figaro last November, former Endemol France chairman Courbit claimed French authorities were responsible for imposing the “worst online gambling laws in Europe.”

At the time he complained that “we are overtaxed, the scope of authorised gambling is too limited and the rate of return to players is too low.”