UK-listed race betting operator Sportech is on the hunt for a new chief executive after the company’s present CEO announced his exit.

On Tuesday, Sportech confirmed that its CEO Andrew Gaughan had informed the company’s board of his intentions to step down as director and to exit Sportech as of February 28, 2019. Gaughan plans to leave after “an orderly handover period” to pursue other interests.

Gaughan, an eight-year Sportech veteran, assumed the CEO mantle in March, following the departure the previous autumn of former chief exec Ian Penrose. Gaughan said Tuesday that he was leaving Sportech “in a position of strength with an established core global betting technology business and well placed to take advantage of the opportunities that the US sports betting market presents.”

Sportech will now commence the search for a new CEO and an independent director to occupy Gaughan’s board seat. In the meantime, Sportech’s non-executive chairman Richard McGuire will become interim executive chairman with immediate effect. McGuire plans to take up residence at the company’s US HQ in Connecticut.