Kevin Roberts takes new role with CricHQ

Kevin Roberts - ad guru. Photo / File

Adman Kevin Roberts has been appointed chairman of online cricket portal CricHQ.

The move comes four months after Roberts resigned from Saatchi & Saatchi over claims gender bias wasn't a problem in the advertising industry.

CricHQ launched in 2010 with cloud-based cricket scoring software but has since expanded into competition management, administration and a scoreboard and statistics platform as well as data collection and predictive scoring.

The Wellington company's shareholders include former Black Caps captains Stephen Fleming and Brendon McCullum.

CricHQ chief executive Simon Baker said Roberts brought expertise in sports business, media and brand strategy, agreements, governance, and equity value creation.

"Kevin is a brilliant business analyst, strategist and tactician and his skills and leadership experience will be a major asset as the company accelerates," Baker said.

Roberts said that CricHQ was "on the cusp of something very special".

"Simon and his team have built a platform that will provide huge value for participants in the world's second most popular sport. Baseball has the same DNA as cricket, and the monetisation of data and content in baseball is huge and serves as a model for cricket, the difference being that cricket is an order of magnitude bigger than baseball," he said.

As well as spear-heading Saatchi & Saatchi, Roberts has previously held leadership roles at Lion Nathan, Pepsi-Co, and Procter & Gamble. He was also on the board of the New Zealand Rugby Union.

Roberts resigned from Saatchi & Saatchi in August after his controversial remarks. He apologised and stepped down from the role.