() said it is fortifying its board of directors with the addition of online gaming pioneer James Keane.

Keane was a founding member of the early gaming site ParadisePoker.com, which started in 2001 and grew into one of the top poker sites in the world before its acquisition by Sportingbet in 2005.

He is currently the CEO of King Show Games LLC, a full-service game development and marketing studio that has designed over 200 games.

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“We are thrilled to welcome someone of James’s calibre to our team as he brings decades of experience in the gaming industry to the FansUnite board of directors,” said Scott Burton, CEO of FansUnite in a statement.

Keane’s firsthand experience in managing small organizations and scaling them to large entities has created shareholder value through subsequent exits, Burton added.

“His wealth of knowledge and experience will be a tremendous asset to our organization as we look to expand our business and grow our global footprint in the coming years.”

At Toronto-based FansUnite, Keane will advise the company on M&A, financing, US opportunities and emerging markets, the group said.

“As someone that has been in the gaming industry for the past 20 years, I am an advocate in backing teams that have the opportunity for global scale and mass adoption,” Keane told investors.

“After evaluating this organization, I believe the technology and team that has been put together at FansUnite puts the company in a position to gain market share in a rapidly growing I-gaming market. The recent acquisition of Askott Entertainment now gives us the asset base to capitalize on multiple betting verticals and I could not be more thrilled to join this board of leading gaming executives.”

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