Wynn Resorts President Billings Named Wynn Interactive CFO

US gaming and hospitality operator Wynn Resorts announced in a filing issued on Friday its president Craig Billings stepped down from the position effective May 24, 2021. Billings remained on his other role, the chief financial officer of the company, though.

Internal Shift

Craig Billings was appointed as Chief Financial Officer at the online gaming arm of Wynn Resorts, Wynn Interactive, which is operating the company’s sports betting and iGaming businesses.

Currently, the interactive gaming arm is running sports betting and online casino gaming in the US and the UK as the company secured market access deals for 15 US states to reach approximately 51% of the population. Future plans at Wynn Interactive include more market access deals to reach approximately 77% of the US population.

Craig Billings, who joined Wynn Resorts in 2017, also has experience gained at casino equipment suppliers Aristocrat Leisure and NYX Gaming Group, the company that was acquired by Scientific Games in 2018, as well as vice president in the investment banking division of Goldman Sachs in New York and London, covering the gaming industry.

First Post-Merger Senior Appointment

The high-profile shift within the group followed a recent announcement for the merger between Wynn Interactive and the special purpose acquisition company Austerlitz Acquisition Corporation, under which the combined business will retain the name Wynn Interactive and go public on the NASDAQ.

The definitive agreement to create a business with an enterprise value of $3.2 billion is still to be approved by shareholders at the SPAC. Upon closing the transaction, the combined entity is expected to have approximately $640 million in cash on its balance sheet to help it fund already existing operations and future growth initiatives.

Craig Billings was also granted 10,000 shares of the combined entity as part of his incentive plan as a senior figure with the new business. As part of the agreement between Wynn Resorts and Wynn Interactive, the online gaming business will reimburse Billing’s previous employer with a percentage of his salary.

Billings, who was re-elected to remain as a non-executive director of Wynn Resorts’ subsidiary Wynn Macau, will not be affected salary-wise by the change to his position, Wynn noted in the filing, revealing he will remain eligible to earn an annual cash bonus as per the company’s compensation plan.