Ex-Entain COO takes the top job at Aristocrat Leisure

A new Chief Executive Officer is set to take the helm at Aristocrat Leisure in 2027. Dafne Guisard will take on CEO duties from April 2027, stepping up from her current role as Chief Commercial Officer for the European, Middle East and Asia (EMMA) region. Guisard is the former Chief Operating Officer at Entain, operator of Ladbrokes Coral in the UK, having held the role between January 2025-February 2026. She has also held senior roles at Kraft Heinz and Anheuser-Busch InBev. “I am deeply honoured to be chosen to lead this great business as CEO, and am excited at the opportunities ahead,” Guisard said. A changing of the guard at Aristocrat Guisard takes over CEO duties from Trevor Croker, who has held the top leadership role at Aristocrat since 2017. Croker is due to step down from the role in April 2027 and begin retirement. Croker became Aristocrat’s CEO in 2017, subsequently overseeing the company through an intense period of growth over the following nine years. This included overseeing the 2024 acquisition of Israeli gambling tech firm NeoGames for $1bn (£750m). The ASX-listed company is active across Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin America and North America, and is the largest company in the gambling industry by market cap with a valuation at the time of writing of AU$38.5bn (£19.63bn). The acquisition led to a huge expansion of Aristocrat’s capabilities and reach, integrating the BtoBet B2B sportsbook, the AspireCore betting and casino content platform, and Pariplay aggregation platform. These had all in turn been acquired by NeoGames when it bought Aspire Global in 2022. “It has been a privilege to lead Aristocrat through a decade of significant change and opportunity,” Croker remarked on his nine year tenure as Aristocrat CEO and Managing Director. “By maintaining focus on our competitiveness, with strong organic investment to grow our share with our customers and disciplined M&A to accelerate strategic opportunities and capabilities, we have further extended Aristocrat’s track record of high-quality growth and positioned the business with exciting optionality for the future.”