TIDMBIDS
RNS Number : 8271A
Bidstack Group PLC
31 May 2019
Certain information contained within this Announcement is deemed
by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under
the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014 ("MAR"). Upon
publication of this Announcement, this information is now
considered to be in the public domain.
31 May 2019
Bidstack Group PLC ("Bidstack or "the Company")
Appointments of Ian Hetherington, Jon Epstein and Nav Sunner to
Advisory Board
"Development Legend" Ian Hetherington, former CEO of GameSpot
and Double Fusion Jon Epstein, and inveterate video games
professional Nav Sunner join Bidstack's Advisory Board
Bidstack Group plc (AIM: BIDS.L), the native in-game advertising
group, is pleased to announce the appointments of Ian Hetherington,
Jon Epstein and Nav Sunner to its Advisory Board, following the
recent appointments of Will Kassoy (AdColony, Activision Blizzard),
Pete Beeney (Spotify) and Joel Livesey (The Trade Desk).
Ian Hetherington
Ian Hetherington has over 30 years' experience as an
entrepreneur, founder and investor in the video game, emerging
technology and digital sectors.
In 1985, he co-founded the video game developer and publisher,
Psygnosis, the creator of two iconic games, Wipeout (Wipeout 2097
was ranked as the fourth best PlayStation game of all time by
GameRankings) and Lemmings (declared in 1996 by Next Generation as
the 8th-greatest game of all time).
The business was acquired by Sony in 1993 when Ian was appointed
joint managing director of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, a
position he held for five years. During this period, he built the
leadership team and a staff of over 650 that developed and brought
to market the first PlayStation console and games in Europe.
He subsequently founded and invested in both Evolution Studios
(World Rally Championship) and RealTime Worlds Ltd. (Crackdown -
named the 2007 BAFTA "Best Action and Adventure Game" and "Best Use
of Audio" which also won the "Best Debut" award at the 2008 Game
Developers Choice Awards) and was chairman of BigBig Studios
(Pursuit Force - in 2006 The Times gave it five stars and said,
"Even by the high standards already set, Pursuit Force is an
astonishing title...), which was acquired by Sony Computer
Entertainment in 2007.
Over the years Ian has backed many games developers including
David Jones, creator of Grand Theft Auto. Ian was crowned a
"Development Legend" by the Develop Industry Excellence Awards in
2007.
He now works with a diverse range of businesses in areas such as
3D mapping, simulation, machine learning, analytics, autonomous
vehicles and machine processable real world data.
Jon Epstein
Jonathan Epstein is Senior Vice President of International for
Sentient, where he is leading the growth of Sentient's Ascend
product line outside of the Americas. Prior to assuming his current
role, Jonathan was Chief Marketing Officer for Sentient.
A serial entrepreneur who has successfully launched and sold
multiple companies at the intersection of technology, media and
marketing, and gaming, Jonathan has more than 25 years of
leadership experience. His career has included stints as founder
and CEO of GameSpot, one of the top digital media brands for young
adult males, as Executive Vice President and General Manager of
Media for IGN Entertainment, another top media brand, and as
president of Omek Interactive, the gesture technology company whose
products are at the heart of Intel's RealSense technology. He has
also served as CEO of Double Fusion, an in--game advertising
company, as president of GameSpy, a media and middleware company,
and as CEO of Hawkes Remotes, a remotely--operated underwater
vehicle company.
Jonathan is a frequent speaker at conferences in marketing
technology, gaming, gesture technology, and marine technology, and
has published many articles in top marketing and technology
publications. He has authored issued patents in fields as diverse
as advertising audience measurement and fiber--optic spooling
technology for remotely operated vehicles, and has a pending patent
in use cases for 3D gesture recognition.
Nav Sunner
Nav is a highly experienced lawyer, business development and
business relationships expert immersed in the video games
industry.
Nav has acted as both in-house counsel and external adviser for
a variety of companies in the video games industry including
developers, publishers and service companies and has been involved
in the acquisition of, investment into and the IPO's of games
businesses from both a legal and business perspective.
After qualifying as a lawyer with national law firm Pinsent
Masons, Nav spent six years as head of legal at Codemasters and
three years as General Counsel at Mastertronic. Following a further
three years practising law as Co-Head of Interactive Entertainment
for Osborne Clarke and, subsequently, as head of Computer Games for
Wiggin, Nav spent two years as a commercial director for
Microsoft.
In addition to his video game consultancy "Navatron", Nav is
currently a director of an esports company, an adviser to a number
of games companies and is Video Games Sector Principal for an
M&A advisory firm.
James Draper, CEO of Bidstack, commented, "We are excited to add
to the pool of talent which now surrounds Bidstack.
"We have been talking to Ian Hetherington for some time and are
pleased that he has now come on board. He truly is a legend in UK
games development and a key figure in the history of the Sony
PlayStation.
"We believe Jon Epstein's experience will be of great value to
us particularly following his time as CEO of Double Fusion, an
in-game advertising business in the pre-programmatic world which
was ahead of its time and fell victim to the 2009 recession.
"Nav is a force of nature in the world of video games and has
already provided Bidstack with great contacts and legal advice.
"With these appointments, I think our Advisory Committee, with
its unrivalled experience and relationships in both the video game
and adtech communities, is complete for the time being. We are now
working hard, with the help of our Advisory Committee, to ensure
that we maximise the near term opportunities available in the
coming months, which could be truly industry defining, given the
expected launch of major cloud-gaming services later this
year."
ENDS
Contacts
Bidstack Group PLC
James Draper, CEO +44 (0) 7850 341 885
SPARK Advisory Partners Limited (Nomad)
Mark Brady/Neil Baldwin/James Keeshan +44 (0) 203 368 3550
Peterhouse Capital Limited (Broker)
Eran Zucker/Lucy Williams/Duncan Vasey +44 (0) 20 7409 0930
Alma PR
Josh Royston/Sam Modlin +44 (0) 203 405 0205
Notes to editors
Bidstack is an advertising technology company which provides
dynamic, targeted and automated native in-game advertising for the
global video games industry across multiple platforms. Its
proprietary API technology is capable of inserting adverts into
natural advertising space within video games across multiple video
games platforms (mobile, PC and console).
Bidstack's customers are games publishers and developers and
advertising agencies, brands and programmatic advertising
platforms. Bidstack contracts exclusive access to the native
in-game advertising space within video games from their developers
or publishers and sells that advertising space either direct to
specific brands and their agencies or through programmatic
advertising platforms.
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END
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