Merkur Sportwetten names Rene Abou el Alla as new CPO

The Gauselmann Group announced a new addition to its sports betting team. As from 1 October 2019, Rene Abou el Alla assumed responsibility as Chief Product Owner (CPO) for the Merkur Sportwetten subsidiary.

One of the 44-year-old business graduate’s main tasks will be to establish a professional product management system in cooperation with the company’s own betting operator and product company, Cashpoint Solutions. Previously, as Lead Product Owner CRM at MediaMarktSaturn Retail Group, he was in charge of product development for the international CRM platform, as well as of the related loyalty program.

“The sports betting market in Germany is highly competitive, and we therefore need and want to convince with quality. Rene Abou el Alla is an experienced and acknowledged expert in his field. I am very confident that he will drive the company forward, allowing us to take our place among the best and fastest omni-channel betting platforms in the market in the near future,” says Markus Ettlin, management spokesman for Merkur Sportwetten GmbH.

“Rene Abou el Alla will sustainably strengthen the sports betting business segment in the area of product management. In his new position as CPO, he will help to establish structures that reflect the state of the art in agile product development. This is an important step towards further improving the quality of our products,” adds Michael Schiener, CEO of Cashpoint Solutions.

Following six years in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Rene Abou el Alla, a native of North Rhine-Westphalia, is also looking forward to the upcoming challenges in Espelkamp: “I’m extremely enthusiastic about sports betting as a product. I think it offers great technological potential and many opportunities to clearly set ourselves apart from the competition long-term. Together with my colleagues, I intend to rethink things, take a fresh approach and, like this, contribute to future successes.”