Global sports betting and gaming entertainment operator to create Oldham tech jobs

Entain, the leading global sports betting and gaming entertainment operator, is recruiting new creative and tech roles for its Oldham-based in-house games studio, CR Games, which will take headcount close to 50, representing an increase of around 25%.

In the near term, further roles will also be created at the studio.

The hiring will accelerate and expand Entain’s ability to provide customers with new and exclusive products and experiences.

CR Games will also be adapting best-selling proprietary games enjoyed in the UK for customers in Europe.

Once this people investment is complete, CR Games will be ten-times the size it was when it became part of Coral (a subsidiary of Entain) in 2013.

The new roles will help the Oldham team take some of Entain’s most popular games, such as Big Banker, to customers across the world, including the US and the Baltic states.

It is important that Entain’s employees reflect its customer base.

As a business with many customers in the North West, the local developers and creatives (art, design and music) that will be hired are close to Entain’s UK customer base, and so understand and often play the company’s games themselves.

The Greater Manchester area is a great source of talent, with CR Games and Entain being part of a regional hub in the North West of developers and designers to the gaming and entertainment industry.

CR Games is currently versioning the latest release of its popular “Big Banker” game for customers of Optibet in Latvia and bwin customers in other parts of Europe.

The studio is also creating new recreational games for the mass market, in the UK and elsewhere, including “Fiery Wilds”, a casino game which has already proved popular with players.

New content includes free-to-play slots tournaments, believed to be the first of their kind, giving customers a great choice of free games to play and win cash prizes. 

Over 30,000 customers of Entain’s Coral brand in the UK entered in June following launch, with international customers of Gala, Party and bwin expected to join over the summer.

Entain is also developing new experiences for customers using immersive technologies, and plans to upweight this capability at its in-house studios.

The Group’s first VR product for customers - a multi-activity sports club - is due later in the year.

This investment is part of a doubling of staff across Entain’s in-house studios around the world, which will take global numbers to 300. 

Peter Moran, Head of In-House Content at Entain, said: “We are extremely excited to be building out our specialist team of developers, mathematicians and artists at our in-house games studio in the North West.

"We are lucky to have many customers in the region and recruiting here ensures our people understand and appreciate the great experiences and exciting entertainment on offer across Entain.

"The team in Oldham will be developing innovative, first-of-their-kind entertainment products for markets in the UK, Europe and, in time, the USA.

“Oldham, and Greater Manchester more widely, is home to some exceptional talent and has helped CR Games grow ten-fold since 2013, with exceptional staff retention as our engaged people develop and deliver industry-leading products and experiences.

"Our growth plans show no sign of stopping and we look forward to further delivering for our customers across all our global brands from our dynamic Oldham base.”

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