Betsmarties 2024: The Winner’s Circle

Finally, the event everyone has been waiting for, Betsmart’s 12 days of festive industry recognition, begins. We were overwhelmed by the number of nominations sent in, thank you! The judging team enjoyed reading about the great and innovative work going on across our industry, which made opening nominations to our network so worthwhile. There were so many deserving nominees, and it took several meetings at Betsmart Towers, but we finally managed to establish the winners.

Same as last year, we will announce a new winner every weekday in the run up to Christmas.

Day 1 - Networking Ninja

A massive congratulations goes to Paula Murphy. You are on it! You attend all the right events, post super useful updates, share information, and connect with others to raise the profile of the company you work for and what they’re doing. A massive congratulations goes to you and all of your hard work.

Day 2 - Safer Gambling Saviour

Put your hands together for our second winner Duncan Garvie for Safer Gambling Saviour. Duncan, you have continuously raised awareness of problem gambling and prevention, whether it’s been through attending conferences, online events, or using your platform to share valuable information. You manage to bring consumers a.k.a ‘people’, back to the heart of safer gambling and you clearly communicate the impact it can have on our communities.

Day 3 - Marketing Marvels

Congratulations to the marketing team at BetMGM and LeoVegas Group for not only creating a series of funny, engaging and memorable adverts – but getting across a safer gambling message (in a cool way with comedy legend Chris Rock) which encourages their patrons to bet mindfully and safely. As a result, you have been crowned the winners of our Marketing Marvels category for Betsmarties 2024.

You can watch one of their adverts here: https://lnkd.in/eYT7hUGk

Day 4 - Always Ahead of the ESG Curve

Our new ‘Always Ahead of the ESG Curve’ operator category, looks at how an operator values the world their players and employees live and work in. Our deserving winner is 🥁... Betsson Group with Jonna Danlund leading their ESG strategy. They not only protect the planet through emission reduction but really look after their people through policy and practice and have the highest standards of governance and are proud to disclose it. Congratulations 👏

Day 5 - Bossing it: Community Campaigns

This category, 'Bossing it: Community Campaigns', was created to include the communities in which the hashtag#betting and hashtag#gambling industry impacts, and how it is handled through communication, stakeholder meetings, and support.

Which is why when we read the nominations for Cheltenham Borough Council (with Louis Krog and Michelle Bignell who lead the strategy), and how they help organise and manage the fantastic racing events which are truly embedded in the local community and British culture, we knew Cheltenham Borough Council was a great inaugural winner for this award 🏆.

Day 6 - Compliance Shining Star

First category up this week is Compliance Shining Star, and our incredibly deserving winner, who received a multitude of nominations, is 🥁... Heidi Hards!

Impeccably professional, respected by both internal colleagues and external stakeholders, Heidi’s mantra is not just to do the compliant thing, but also the right thing – keeping both the company, in this case Buzz Bingo, and most importantly, their customers protected. Congratulations 👏

Day 7 - The Matchmaker

The Matchmaker category received a number of nominations for several deserving companies. After much deliberation our winner is Gaming Recruitment Solutions👏. From campaigns to social media, communicating with your stakeholders and more, you match up the perfect candidates to their new employers brilliantly, knowing exactly who to connect and where they will thrive. Your USP is incredible industry knowledge, offering tailored support to both clients and candidates, and you know that recruitment isn’t just a numbers game, but a people game.

Day 8 - Crime Fighters

Betsmarties winner of Crime Fighters category is 🥁... the AML & Compliance team at Broadway Gaming👏. These superheroes do a sterling job of keeping crime out of our industry. The team at Broadway have strong frameworks in place to safeguard customers and the company alike, ensuring AML and crime prevention is at the heart of everything they do.

Day 9 - Safer Gambling Improvements

The winner of 'Safer Gambling Improvements' category is 🥁... Allwyn UK. This company has made big improvements to safer gambling controls since it took over the running of the National Lottery in February. As well as improved internal controls and enhanced staff training, Allwyn has also proactively introduced a limit to the number of scratch cards which can be bought in one go.

Day 10 - Remarkable Regulator

The winner of the 'Remarkable Regulator' category is 🥁... Gibraltar Gambling Commissioners Office. Always striking the perfect balance between industry support and licensee supervision, the Gibraltar Gambling Commissioner, Andrew Lyman and his team, do a great job. Frequent, clear communications to licensees means that operators know what they need to be doing and the door is always open to seek clarification if required. Add onto this the jurisdiction’s removal from the FATF grey list earlier this year and an impending new regulatory regime ready for next year, and you get one extremely productive regulator.

Day 11 - Sweet C-suite

We are excited to announce the winning team for Sweet C-suite category, as we had a lot of interest for this category and received lots of nominations for a variety of organisations. After much deliberation, Buzz Bingo a.k.a Buzz Group Limited, came out on top and are the winners this year 👏.

This operator proudly has at its helm the most innovative, experienced and impactful c-level team. The senior leadership team (Dominic Mansour, Gary Payne, Jennifer Day, Laura Bushell, Stevie Shaves, David Evans, Gary Fielden, Simon Reynolds, David Cutts, Adam Cunningham) galvanises their entire workforce behind their vision and mission, by demonstrating their human side, and have the respect of their team for putting the well-being of their people on the same level of priority as profit. And this is to be celebrated.

Day 12 - Legal Eagle

We’re finishing strong with the last category, Legal Eagle. We received lots of nominations for this category too, with many hardworking dedicated and talented lawyers being recognised by their peers. Without further ado 🥁... Richard Williams has been crowned our Legal Eagle of the year. You provide clear, sensible and balanced advice to your clients, have a great understanding of how things work in practice, and are always quick to respond to queries and are constantly mindful of regulatory changes which are coming down the road.