The Unit, the leader in product development and digital marketing for betting and igaming, has added two industry stalwarts in Andy Clerkson and Rob Egan to its team as Strategic Advisor and Business Development Director respectively.
Clerkson joins the business having built up a wealth of industry experience. In 2007, he founded influential digital agency Grand Parade, which worked for the great and the good of the online sports betting world, before being acquired by William Hill in 2016. Subsequently, he helped The Stars Group and FOX Sports set up operator FOX Bet in the USA, while he is also the former Chairman of free-to-play (F2P) sports game provider SportCaller. Elsewhere, Clerkson is a Partner at leading investment and advisory firm Tekkorp Capital.
Egan was a colleague of Clerkson’s during his time at SportCaller, where Egan worked across a series of progressively responsible positions, culminating at Business Development Director. This was followed by a stint as Head of Free-to-Play North America for Bally’s Interactive after the US powerhouse acquired SportCaller in 2021.
The appointment of Clerkson also reunites him with The Unit’s Co-Founder, Paddy Casey, who worked under Clerkson at Grand Parade and boasts extensive expertise in betting and gaming, having held a succession of senior product and commercial roles for brands such as BoyleSports, Paddy Power and Gala Coral Group.
These notable additions cement The Unit’s position as a world-class service provider for the sports betting and igaming sector across global markets over the past five years. The team specialises in developing products across a range of industry domains, including Sports, Casino, Free to Play and Gamification Platforms.
Among The Unit’s growing list of partners are brands such as Low6, 10star and PlayStar Casino. Its unwavering focus on creating world-class products that are as efficient as they are scalable sets The Unit apart in the core competencies of product development, innovation and MarTech integration.
Paddy Casey, Co-Founder of The Unit, said: “I am thrilled to add two such senior and successful industry executives to our team. Andy built a terrific business in exactly the space The Unit is in and I had the good fortune to work with him there at Grand Parade and witness the incredible growth. Rob was instrumental in building SportCaller, the most successful free-to-play gaming company in the industry. Both have worked with global operators for many years , and I’m certain their eclectic know-how will allow us to continue to be industry leaders in product, both innovation and development, as well as MarTech, as we grow our worldwide footprint into new territories.”
Andy Clerkson, Strategic Advisor at The Unit, commented: “It’s a pleasure to link up with both Paddy and Rob again; we’ve had some brilliant successes together over the years. The Unit is an exciting proposition. Ever since Grand Parade was consumed by William Hill, there has been a lack of resource for specialist sports betting and igaming design and development, with front and backend disciplines, all available in teams of anything from 4 to 40. Our industry knows that there’s a steep learning curve when it comes to building sports betting and gaming products, alongside working with large platforms. The Unit has the product smarts and the developer heft. I am relishing the chance to help Paddy and Rob scale this business up.”
Rob Egan, Business Development Director at The Unit, added: “With any supplier, it’s important to have a strong and experienced team to deliver quality products at scale, on time and add value. The Unit have that team and have been offering some of the best software in the gaming space, so this was an opportunity I could not turn down. They’ve already built up a strong track record over the past five years of operation and are the best-kept secret in the space, to my mind. Of course, I now look forward to changing that in my biz dev capacity, helping The Unit on their way to sustained growth.”
