Digitain appoints former William Hill executive Mary Ann Calleja as Chief Product Officer

Digitain likes to talk about being “built to lead,” but until now its top table lacked a product visionary to match that slogan. That gap closed this morning, when the Armenian supplier confirmed the appointment of Mary Ann Calleja—former Head of Product at William Hill International (now Evoke) and most recently CPO of Suntech Innovation—as its new Chief Product Officer.

“With an incredible team of talented professionals and a strong tech foundation, we’ll be focusing on elevating our platform capabilities, enhancing player experience through innovation and personalisation, and aligning product delivery to our strategic vision,” Calleja said in the release.

A résumé that mixes compliance discipline with UX flair

Calleja spent almost six years at William Hill International, where she steered the Mr Green product roadmap across compliance, RG tooling, payments, sportsbook and casino verticals—experience that Digitain hopes will translate into faster multi-market roll-outs of its Centrivo stack. She left the FTSE-listed operator in 2023 to become CPO at Suntech Innovation, overseeing modular PAM builds for four operator groups in MENA and the CIS. On paper, that combination of tier-one governance and start-up velocity is exactly what Digitain needs to keep pace with its recent land-grab.

Why Digitain pressed the button now

• Licence unlocks: a UK Gambling Commission remote licence granted on 10 September 2024 opened the door to Britain’s £10 bn online market.

  
  

• LatAm beachheads: retail partnership with Dominican operator Colombo Sport (17 Oct 2024) and Brazil product certification (17 Jan 2025) widen the supplier’s reach south of the equator.

  
  

• Fresh European pipelines: strategic deals with Winmasters (13 Jan 2025) and Gamingtec/Betters.pl (31 Mar 2025) commit Digitain to multi-brand launches in Greece, Romania, Cyprus, Malta and Poland over the next 12 months.

  
  

All three strands add regulatory weight, which in turn raises the bar for product localisation and compliance-by-design—areas Calleja specialised in at evoke.

What changes first?

Digitain’s announcement gives Calleja a broad brief—“shaping product vision” and leading a multidisciplinary team of PMs, designers, analysts and data scientists—but conversations with Gaming Eminence sources suggest three near-term priorities:

1. Unify the stack. Centrivo Universal (casino/PAM) and the flagship sportsbook still sit on separate governance tracks. Expect a single code-base commerce layer before year-end.

   
   

2. Shrink time-to-jurisdiction. Calleja’s William Hill playbook brought new markets live in under four months; Digitain wants the same cadence as it eyes another six regulated launches before 2027.

   
   

3. Turn compliance into UX. The UK’s upcoming personalisation and affordability rules will likely become a showcase for proactive RG features that double as engagement tools.

These are ambitions rather than promises, but Calleja’s track record suggests she is comfortable turning regulatory necessity into product advantage.

Momentum—and expectations

Awards aren’t strategy, but they are a proxy for industry sentiment. Digitain walked away from ICE Barcelona 2025 with “Global Gaming Company of the Year” at the International Gaming Awards, and pocketed “Best Interactive Sportsbook Experience 2025” at the SiGMA Americas Awards two months later. The company now needs to translate trophies into sustained commercial wins; Calleja’s hire is the clearest signal yet that product, not just sales velocity, will be the lever.

Digitain has spent the past eighteen months proving it can sell into almost any regulated market. The arrival of Mary Ann Calleja suggests the next chapter is about building once and localising many, with personalisation and compliance woven into the core of the experience rather than bolted on. If she delivers, Digitain could graduate from energetic challenger to genuine platform contender well before ICE 2027.