ZEAL to Streamline Executive Board as Sönke Martens Leaves as CCO

• ZEAL redesigns Executive Board to three members effective 1^st December 2023
• Sönke Martens will leave end of February 2024 to ensure seamless transition

Hamburg, 29 November 2023. After almost 10 years with ZEAL, Sönke Martens, Chief Commercial Officer of ZEAL, has decided not to extend his Board contract expiring end of June 2024. Going forward, ZEAL Network SE will streamline its Executive Board to three members effective 1^st December 2023.

Sönke Martens will step down from his position on the ZEAL Executive Board effective from 30 November 2023. He will continue to serve ZEAL until the end of February 2024 to ensure a seamless transition of his responsibilities to respective management leaders of ZEAL.

“I would like to thank Sönke Martens for his relentless dedication towards ZEAL and its brands LOTTO24 and Tipp24 in the past years.”, said Peter Steiner, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of ZEAL Network SE. “With his innovative spirit, he has shaped ZEAL’s culture and made significant contributions to making ZEAL a best-in-class e-commerce company and the market leader for online lotteries”

Helmut Becker, Chief Executive Officer of ZEAL Network SE: “On behalf of the entire Executive Board I would like to extend my gratitude and best wishes to Sönke for his passion and startup spirit he brought to the company. Only this year, he and his team successfully launched the biggest marketing campaign in the history of LOTTO24. Under his leadership ZEAL tripled billings in the core business, successfully integrated the LOTTO24 and Tipp24 businesses, and achieved a significant improvement in customer lifetime values and the way we win new customers. We regret his decision to leave ZEAL and pursue entrepreneurial opportunities outside of ZEAL, and wish him the best for the future.”

Sönke Martens has been part of the ZEAL Group since 2014. He held various management positions, initially as Head of Product, later as Managing Director responsible for the operational business and, among other things, shaped the multi-brand strategy following the LOTTO24 takeover. Since July 2021 he serves as member of the Executive Board of ZEAL. In his role he was responsible for product management, marketing and customer operations, data science, as well as the German LOTTO24 business and ZEAL Iberia.

About ZEAL: 

ZEAL Network SE is the leading German provider of lotteries on the internet. Through the portals LOTTO24 and Tipp24 of the subsidiary LOTTO24, the company brokers customers’ tickets to the state lottery companies and to charity lottery operators. The product range includes LOTTO 6aus49, Spiel 77, Super 6, Eurojackpot, GlücksSpirale, lottery clubs, Keno, the Deutsche Fernsehlotterie, Scratch Games, the Deutsche Traumhauslotterie and freiheit+. Founded in Germany in 1999, ZEAL started out as a German lottery broker under the name Tipp24. In 2005, the company went public on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (Prime Standard) as one of the most successful IPOs in Germany at the time. In 2019, ZEAL took over LOTTO24 AG.

SOURCE: ZEAL Network SE.