Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa, January 2026 — Sun International has announced the appointment of Mark Sergeant as Chief Operating Officer: Gaming (Land-based Gaming), reporting directly to Ulrik Bengtsson, CEO of Sun International, effective 1 February 2026. In this role, Sergeant will be responsible for the group’s land-based gaming revenue across Sun International’s portfolio, bringing deep commercial and operating expertise to strengthen sustainable growth, profitability, and multi-channel guest and gaming experiences at scale.
Sun International highlighted Sergeant’s 25+ years of leadership experience across gaming, leisure, and hospitality, including senior roles leading two of the UK’s largest casino groups. The company noted his reputation for combining operational excellence with a people-first leadership approach—building high-performing teams, developing future leaders, and championing Responsible Gaming with strong standards of integrity, compliance, and customer care.
Before joining Sun International, Mark Sergeant served for over two years as Director of Operations at Atlas Hotels in the United Kingdom, with operational and product responsibility across 59 Holiday Inn Express hotels and a workforce of 2,600 employees. In this role, he led performance-focused transformation through a new Balanced Scorecard linking controllable KPIs to reward and recognition—driving revenue growth, EBITDA improvement, stronger employee engagement, and improved guest satisfaction. He also helped strengthen culture and ways of working, supporting Atlas Hotels in achieving Sunday Times Top 100 Companies accreditation in 2024, while standardising SOPs to drive efficiencies and cost savings, and relaunching the F&B offering to lift revenue and gross profit.
Earlier, he spent close to three years as Co-Founder & Co-Owner of The Good Zest Company, an organic beauty and wellness start-up in the UK. During this entrepreneurial phase, he built the end-to-end digital strategy, developed a multi-award-winning product portfolio, and negotiated distribution agreements to support international expansion, including exports to Asia.
Sergeant is also widely recognised for his nearly four-year tenure as Group Managing Director at Genting Casinos UK, where he led a portfolio of 35 UK casinos, additional international operations, online gaming businesses based in Malta, and a major leisure, retail and hotel resort at the NEC in Birmingham. His responsibilities included annualised revenues of £300m+, EBITDA of £25m+, and a workforce of 4,000. He is credited with executing a new business strategy to drive strong growth in revenue, attendance, and profitability, redefining the digital business with an omnichannel focus, and being recognised for leadership in compliance and social responsibility in a highly regulated environment.
Prior to Genting, he served as Chief Executive Officer at Bowlplex Ltd for nearly three years, leading a major turnaround from the verge of administration through to a multi-million-pound trade sale. He drove growth and profitability across 17 bowling centres, alongside cultural transformation initiatives focused on making the organisation a stronger place to work and improving the guest proposition through product and F&B improvements.
Earlier in his career, he spent over three years as Managing Director – Gala Casinos at Gala Coral Group, with accountability across 45 casinos in the UK and one in Gibraltar, and also held an acting MD role covering Gala Bingo & Gala Casinos. His leadership included strategy resets that improved like-for-like performance and EBITDA, strengthened culture through leadership and support-function enhancements, and drove material improvements in employee engagement and the food & beverage proposition.
Sergeant’s foundational experience includes nearly 11 years at Mitchells & Butlers PLC, where he held senior commercial leadership roles including Director of Pricing & Customer Insight, and earlier commercial and marketing positions—building expertise in customer insight, pricing strategy, and performance measurement, including early rollout work around Net Promoter Score measurement in the sector.
About Sun International
Sun International is a leading player in gaming, hospitality, and entertainment, operating a portfolio of hotels, casinos, and premier resorts known for experiential luxury, personal service, and destination-led experiences. The group is recognised for iconic properties including The Palace of the Lost City at Sun City, Time Square in Pretoria, The Table Bay Hotel in Cape Town, and Carnival City in Brakpan. Sun International pioneered gaming in Southern Africa, introducing casinos to the region in the late 1970s, and continues to focus on responsible corporate citizenship, sustainable development, and employee growth through equal opportunity and economic empowerment practices.
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