Evolution Gaming, the pioneer of video-streamed Live Dealer gaming, has expanded its team with the appointments of Manuel Gusterer, as Director of Development, and Gionata La Torre, as Country Manager, Italy, for Evolution’s burgeoning business in Italy’s re-regulated gaming market. 

Gusterer will be based in London and head up a team of more than 40 developers and technicians at Evolution’s London office and its state-of-the-art production studios in Riga. He joins from Tom Tom Inc, Amsterdam, where he had full responsibility for the Tom Tom e-commerce platform. Prior to that he was Development Lead at Real Networks in Salzburg, and his career has also included periods with SAS Institute in Vienna and Sony Pictures in Los Angeles.

“I am joining the acknowledged world leader in Live Casino and it’s an extremely exciting opportunity to use all my skills in software, e-business, digital media and entertainment for the continued benefit of Evolution’s licensees,” said Gusterer.

Gionata La Torre, meanwhile, joins Evolution on a full-time basis as CEO, Italy. La Torre has already worked closely with Evolution and AAMS (Amministrazione Autonoma Monopoli di Stato) in recent months to enable Evolution Live Casino to be the first such product to be approved for Italy.

Like Gusterer, La Torre has extensive experience in digital media. He was previously Managing Director at Havas Media, with responsibility for their Italian operations. He has also worked at British Telecom and BT Openworld (in London) and Telecom Italia (in Rome) in senior roles in internet and multimedia corporate strategy, e-business partnerships and consumer internet services.

According to La Torre: “Italy is a key market for Evolution – and with the first ever approved Live Casino product for Italy I am very proud to be able to help lead this market into what promises to be a new age of strong and sustained growth.”

Commenting on the growing strength and success of the Evolution team, CEO Jens von Bahr said: “These are key appointments that show our commitment to continued innovation and growth. Manuel has an exceptionally strong technical background and under his leadership our technology will go from strength to strength. As for Italy, it is Europe’s largest gaming market in terms of revenue, we already have the first approved Live Casino product there, and we’re already working with major players such as 888, Microgame andUnibet in this market. To have someone of Gionata’s calibre supporting Evolution clients and driving further growth in this region is fantastic news for everyone.”