Former Entain chief customer care officer and general counsel Simon Zinger has launched two entities – a new law firm and a strategic advisory business – following his exit from the operator.
Zinger has revealed both Calibri Law and Bluestar Partners, firms he told EGR that together would provide a “holistic approach” to the gambling industry.
Zinger left the London-listed parent company of Ladbrokes and Coral earlier this year after more than five years.
He originally joined as group general counsel before adding the chief customer care officer role to his remit in 2025.
The former Dentsu general counsel is currently running both entities by himself but is keen to bring further expertise into the fold.
Speaking to EGR, Zinger said: “I definitely want to add people. I need to speak to the right people, and I hopefully the right people will come my way as well.
“I’d like to add people with complementary skills. For example, if there’s a communications expert who wants to join, if there’s a tax expert who wants to join, if there’s another type of lawyer who wants to join, I’m very open to broadening the team.
“I do want to definitely scale both.”
Bluestar Partners will work across “gambling, gaming, media, marketing services and adjacent businesses” and is targeting operators, suppliers, investors and more as clients.
Zinger noted the consultancy would lend support across compliance, M&A, lobbying, risk challenges and a variety of other business needs.
He pointed out the increasingly concerning situation in Brazil, where a provisional measure kicked in on 6 October to ban online gambling, as an area where this dual approach could work.
He continued: “I don’t only want to provide legal advice. There’s that whole subset of operational experience, strategic experience, business experience, commercial experience that I think would be helpful.
“Let’s talk about Brazil. I thought if you apply a strictly legal instrument to it, you’re only touching a small piece of the overall situation.
“Now, if you can add regulatory strategy, if you can add lobbying, if you can add a communication strategy, if you can add something that uses my customer protection experiences that you can inform regulators about, it provides a much more holistic approach.”
Calibri Law, Zinger reasoned, finds itself in good stead in the industry given his operator-based experience with Entain.
“There are lawyers who are really good lawyers, but they haven’t had that company, corporate, commercial, strategic experience. So, I’m hoping that’s the differentiation,” he said.
On having stepped away from the corporate structure, Zinger added: “It feels different, but it feels invigorating and it feels exciting. What’s also interesting is being able, I think, to work with different companies, different people, different situations, in a much more, flexible and liberating way than in the past.
“It’s something new that doesn’t exist today in the industry. You have your established specialist law firms, and you have your consultancies, but hopefully there’s a place for this kind of company as well.”
The post Former Entain general counsel unveils new law firm and complementary consultancy business first appeared on EGR Intel.
Simon Zinger launches Calibri Law and Bluestar Partners to offer “something new” across the legal and advisory space after departing Ladbrokes parent
The post Former Entain general counsel unveils new law firm and complementary consultancy business first appeared on EGR Intel.