Nikos, a former Google executive, will oversee the engineering, product development, creation and delivery of new products amongst other responsibilities.

Strengthening its operation team, OpenBet has also appointed Mark Paling as Commercial Content Director.

Paling was the founder of Electracade, acquired by OpenBet in 2008. He will head up the games team in-house and drive commercial aspects of the content business forward.

The Guardian newspaper reports this week that analysts are concerned following indications from Spain that approval of online betting exchanges could be delayed.

The analysts reported that a conference was held in Madrid this week during which Spanish regulators gave “more colour on the potential future shape of the online gambling market.”

One of the suggestions was that not all internet gambling products would be available in the first licensing wave and some may have to wait, including betting exchanges.

The mere suggestion that this could be the case has prompted some analysts to recommend ’sell’ orders on Betfair stock, fearing material impact on 2012-2013 financial forecasts.

“We see this as a three-fold problem for Betfair,” opined one analyst. “First, and most obviously, if this approach is adopted, then on regulation Betfair is likely to lose most of its 4 percent or so of core revenue from Spain as well as its key USP, even if it gets a licence for other products; given the high fixed cost base and capex, the impact on free cash flow would be material, in our view.

“Secondly, Betfair may not get early certainty on when exchanges will be allowed and under what terms, making forward investment in the market and product difficult.

“Finally, competing against more settled betting brands and products (with incumbent lobbying power) is likely to be far less attractive than being part of an early regulated ‘land-grab’, leveraging an existing ‘.com’ presence.”

The report also revealed that Italy and France, and possibly Cyprus, Germany and Greece are less than enthusiastic about betting exchanges, and that Betfair had filed a complaint with the European Commission about Greece’s draft gaming law, this week, claiming it was unfairly excluded from that market.

There have been reports that the Ladbrokes retail business has been under-performing, and the speculation is that Rust has been recruited to address the situation.

Richard Ames, Ladbrokes’ current head of retail betting, is being moved to a new role as head of customer operations.

In Romania, Finance Ministry secretary of state Bogdan Dragoi, told Mediafax that online gambling might be regulated and authorised as a way to attract considerable sums of money to the national budget. The Finance Minister indicated that he wants to have an investigation carried out in a market where it is estimated that Romanians wager up to Euro 500 million on online gambling sites.

The minister revealed that last year Romania amended the law regulating traditional gambling and increased gambling authorisation taxes, which triggered revenues totaling 550 million lei (Euro1=RON4.1756), compared to 120 million in 2008.

“After the law was amended, gambling revenues increased considerably,” the minister said, adding, “…we are looking into ways to regulate online gambling, and, if we manage to control money [tax] collection, we will authorise them.”

At present Romanian law neither bans nor allows cross border online gambling, but forbids the involvement of Romanian companies.

On June 14 this year the Moldova government announced a project financed by the European Union which involves the amendment of the country’s gambling laws, especially in regard to the regulation of online gambling.

The project was requested by the Moldovan Ministry of the Economy and is being conducted with the advice and support of Dr. Michael Hettich and Dr Wulf Hambach of the Hambach & Hambach law firm in Germany.

The newly drafted law is intended to replace most existing gambling legislation, putting in place an improved, more comprehensive structure of gambling regulation. To address these requirements, the project provided comprehensive advice on legal frameworks in the area of gambling and betting, prepared a section of legislation to address internet and other remote gambling, and made recommendations on amendments to the Draft Gambling Law, including the regulation of remote gambling via the Internet and other means of communication.

Online gambling is currently not regulated in the Republic of Moldova, and this situation has generated legal problems, specifically with the granting of a licence for online lottery activity in April this year, which has been unable to advance.

Government spokesmen have confirmed that a large number of Moldova residents are already participating in online games offered by international operators, and a recent press statement indicates that the major operators involved are PokerStars and Party Gaming, which are likely to be in the running for the first licenses under the new laws, once introduced.