Exclusive: Outgoing STS CEO planned his ascension to chair role for two years
Mateusz Juroszek reveals he has been building up to move away from CEO role to focus on Entain CEE and family office
Outgoing STS CEO Mateusz Juroszek has revealed that his ascension to become chair of the business has been in the offing for two years.
Speaking exclusively to EGR following the news he is stepping down as CEO, Juroszek said he has created the right team to push STS forward.
Juroszek will be replaced as STS CEO by current Entain CEE and SuperSport CEO Radim Hazula, although there are no other major changes to the senior management team, at the time of writing.
Haluza will be supported by long-term chief operating officer Łukasz Świerk and CFO Dawid Prysak, as well as CTO Wojciech Sznapka
Juroszek revealed that this move has been in the works for a lot longer than first thought and preceded the acquisition by Entain.
Juroszek, who has led the business since 2012, played a key role in its public listing on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, which saw the business go public in December 2021.
He said: “For the last two years, since the IPO, this has been something I have been preparing my team for. I’ve been building a management team and, for the last year or so, I have been like a semi-chairman and semi-CEO.
“When the deal with Entain happened and I got involved with Entain CEE, we sat down and discussed the best setup at STS and how best I could develop myself within Entain CEE.
“We thought it would be best to bring Radim [Hazula] over from SuperSport, who will run the business in Poland on a daily basis, and I will support him as chair.
“Radim knows the industry very well. He built an amazing company in Croatia and I am pretty confident that he will do very well in Poland with my support.
“The team has prepared for this change, and I think the closest people in STS have my DNA and want to win all the time and grow. I am also going to be there, so we’ll keep pushing them and making sure they don’t forget who they are. I want to keep my stake in STS forever,” he added.
Juroszek went on to discuss what his plans are moving forward and how he will divide his time between his role with Entain CEE, STS and the investments that the Juroszek family have made.
He explained: “Since the deal with Entain closed, I have been working from my family office, deploying the capital and deciding where we should invest next. Looking at my wealth over the last 10 years, I know that I am one of the biggest investors in the industry, so there will be more going on there.
“I think for the first month, I will be supporting the transition and after that, I will be helping STS and also managing my investments.”
Away from STS, Juroszek touched on the Polish market and what might change in the Central European nation following the election of a new government in October.
He commented: “The Polish market is in an interesting situation at the moment. We have more and more companies, most of them losing money, but at the same time the market is growing and is very exciting.
“We have a new government, so everything starts from scratch. The new government will review the budget and decide where they need more money. We are going to have to do the same play we did for sports betting. We have already started saying to them that the current system is unsustainable and we are one of the last European Union countries with a state monopoly for online casino.
“This creates a huge black market, and we see new companies popping up every day. The only way to stop that is to regulate the market. My only worry is that the government is used to high taxation on gambling and, if we get online casino, it could be taxed at a pretty high rate. I am hopeful that by 2025 we get the provision to apply for an online casino licence.”
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