Major Changes Approved at Amaya Gaming Shareholder Meeting

Amaya Gaming’s efforts to rebrand into the Stars Group, Inc. won the approval of the company’s shareholders at a recent general meeting. The name change is just one piece of a major effort by the online gambling giant to shed the impact of recent scandals and refocus its branding.
That shareholders were so quick to approve sweeping changes across the board speaks volumes about their interest in moving past the legal travails of the company’s former CEO David Baazov.
Baazov is facing a number of charges in a Quebec court related to potential insider trading at the company during his tenure there. He resigned from his position recently to focus on his defense and turned the keys over to Rafi Ashkenazi.
Almost immediately after taking office, Ashenkazi oversaw a number of changes at Amaya Gaming, including the introduction of the Stars Group. He’s also moving the company’s headquarters from Quebec, where Baazov will stand trial, to Toronto. (Though it’s rumored that the move was made to appease company CFO Brian Kyle was unwilling to move to Quebec.)
It’s expected that the Stars Group will be completely moved into its new headquarters by the end of August.
Officially, the changes are not the result of the Amaya Gaming brand being tainted by the Baazov scandal. In a statement to the Canadian Press, Ashenkazi said the changes reflected the company’s desire to refocus on its core products, particularly the PokerStars site.
As part of that refocusing effort, Ahenkazi also announced that PokerStars will be launching a major expansion into the Indian market.
In short, Stars Group is intent on making headlines for news that relevant to the business press and not the police blotter.