PartyGaming, parent
company of Party Poker,
announced today that it had
appointed Jim Ryan as Chief
Executive Officer and that it
had promoted John O’Malia
to the newly created
executive board position of
Managing Director.

O’Malia is said to have
day- to-day responsibility for the management of the company in addition to his seat on the board position.

Ryan, the successor of Mitch Garber, will take over his new duties following a handover of his current responsibilities. Garber will remain available during this transition until July 31, 2008.

Forty six-year-old Ryan, has 22 years of experience in the Internet gaming and technology fields and previously, the CEO of St. Minver Limited, the largest operator of European gaming networks.

In addition to that, numerous reports said that Ryan was also President and CEO of Excapsa Software, a leading internet gaming software developer whose licensees included UltimateBet, and CFO of CryptoLogic, Inc., an internet gaming software developer.

Given his experience in the industry, some said that Ryan seems to be extremely well-suited for his role as the new CEO of PartyGaming.

PartyGaming faces a number of challenges as of the moment; the company reportedly attempts transition into a full-fledged online gaming business rather than just an online poker room, but runs the risk of allowing their core business, Online Poker to freeze.

Also, reports said that PartyGaming Poker revenues were up only slightly from last year since the company is dealing with uneasy analysts and a shareholder base that have watched their shares drop precipitously over the last couple of years.

Party Poker, on the other hand, continues to lose its market share and is currently the fourth largest Poker network in the world meaning that the company is left behind by Pokerstars, Fulltilt Poker and the iPoker network.

Party Poker is dealing with a number of other issues as well, including continued negotiations with the United States government and their recent loss of exclusive sponsorship rights for the World Series of Poker School.

Hoping to deliver real solutions to these problems, Party Gaming appoints an outside talent to run the company.

“The Board is delighted to have appointed Jim Ryan after a rigorous search and selection process that considered a broad range of candidates; Jim has a wealth of experience that will be invaluable in steering the Group through its important next phase of development,” Michael Jackson, Non-Executive Chairman of PartyGaming, said. “Jim’s experience, coupled with John O’Malia’s proven success in managing PartyGaming’s profitability enhancements over the past year, will be a powerful combination in driving the Company forward and continuing to enhance the value and appeal of the PartyGaming’s brands and gaming products,” he added.

Critics said it will be interesting to see whether Ryan will choose to continue the company’s policy of branching out into other markets-blackjack, sports betting, slot machines- or if he will instead choose to focus on PartyGaming’s core business, online poker.