Gaming Awards
National Council on Problem Gambling Announces Recipients of 2025 Awards
The National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG) has announced the recipients of the 2025 National Awards. Each year, NCPG honors individuals and organizations from around the world for their work on problem gambling and responsible gambling. The awards ceremony, exclusively sponsored by Scientific Games, took place on Friday, July 18, in Columbus, Ohio, during the National Conference on Gambling Addiction & Responsible Gambling 2025.
The 2025 NCPG National Awards Recipients include:
• Lifetime Award for Research: Dr. Michael Wohl, Carleton University
• Corporate Social Responsibility Award: Oregon Lottery
• Jeffrey M. Beck Recovery Ambassador Award: Peggy Brown
• Service Award: Susan Diamond, Responsible Gambling Program Manager with the Ohio Lottery
• Joanna Franklin Award for Direct Service: Jeremy Eberle, Co-Owner and Therapist, Alternative Avenues
• Jim Wuelfing Award for Prevention: Claire Spada, Director of Workforce Development, Problem Gambling Network of Ohio
• Don Feeney Award for Responsible Gambling Excellence: Stacy Shaw, Vice President of Product & Program Marketing, Oregon Lottery
• Don Hulen Award for Advocacy & Awareness: Megan Poliquin, LPCC-S, LICDC-GAMB, Zepf Center3
• Dr. Durand Jacobs Dissertation Award: Dr. Jackie Stanmyre, Rutgers University for Gambling Studies
• Denise Phillips Community Outreach and Multicultural Wellness Award: Shandra Parks, PhD, LMSW, CFSW, CCGSO, Maryland Council on Problem Gambling
• Media Award: The Ohio Newsroom for their story on the Ohio Gambling Telehealth Network, reported by Erin Gottsacker
• Affiliate Public Awareness Award: The Problem Gambling Coalition of Colorado
• Corporate Public Awareness Award: Oregon Lottery for their “Safer Play” PSA Campaign
• Affiliate Multicultural Communications Award: Evergreen Council on Problem Gambling for “It Takes Community to Overcome Problem Gambling”
• Corporate Multicultural Communications Award: Oregon Lottery for “Multi-cultural Digital/Print Media Marketing Campaign”
• Affiliate Awareness Campaign Impact Award: The Evergreen Council on Problem Gambling for the “ECPG Gift Responsibly Winter Campaign”
• Corporate Awareness Campaign Impact Award: The Virginia Lottery for “Scratchers for Kids? Scratch That Idea”
• Affiliate People’s Choice Award: Illinois Council on Problem Gambling for “Are You Really Winning?”
• Corporate People’s Choice Award: Ohio for Responsible Gambling for their “More Than A Bet” Campaign
NCPG has congratulated this year’s award recipients and thanked them for their dedication to advancing prevention, treatment, research, recovery, and responsible gambling.
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2026 European iGaming Awards
Press Box PR secures PR Agency of the Year honor at the European iGaming Awards 2026
Press Box PR has been awarded PR Agency of the Year at the 2026 European iGaming Awards, marking the first significant industry accolade in the agency’s history.
Conducted at the renowned ICE event in Barcelona, this industry accolade signifies the company’s development and standing in the betting and gaming field.
Press Box PR, with locations in London and Manchester, is a PR agency that combines digital and traditional methods, focusing on gaining exposure in iGaming, sports, consumer sectors, finance, hospitality, and catering, while also assisting brands in securing mentions in AI citations and LLM suggestions. In 2025, the agency marked a significant achievement by exceeding £5m in revenue and expanding the team to over 50 members.
Sarah Williams, B2B Account Manager at Press Box, said: “The best part of being a PR is bigging up our clients – telling their stories and shouting about their achievements. But as an agency, we often forget to celebrate our own achievements. When I started telling Press Box PR’s ‘story’ two years ago, hearing from the team about their wins big and small, I was so impressed with the authenticity and integrity of each Press Box PR employee.
“From there, it was really easy to write an entry detailing why our team deserves to win a ‘PR Agency of the Year’ award! My colleagues are incredibly fun, hard-working people and it was such a pleasure to tell their story in such a compelling way.”
Alex Donohue, managing director and founder of Press Box PR, said: “This award is credit to the entire Press Box PR team. The work we do is always collaborative, and it is the consistency, care and creativity across the business that helps us deliver meaningful results for our clients time and time again.
“We are incredibly proud to see that effort recognised by the industry, especially in a sector as competitive and fast-moving as iGaming. It is a brilliant moment for the agency and a reflection of the standards our team sets every day.”
January has been a busy month for the leading PR for AI and LLM agency with the appointment of former Playtech chief commercial officer, John Pettit, who has been appointed executive chairman. Pettit will work closely with the senior leadership team to guide strategic direction, support client growth in regulated industries such as finance/fintech, technology and of course, iGaming.
The company also has a number of new campaigns for clients in progress for the Six Nations Championship, Cheltenham Festival and the FIFA World Cup 2026.
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Best Software Supplier of the Year
Champions Club Dominates the Event in GR8 Tech’s Largest ICE to Date
“ICE is where operators come with a plan,” said Sergey Ghazaryan, CRO at GR8 Tech. “And this year, the demand was strong, as our meeting calendar was full and conversations were the kind that led to next steps. Champions Club worked because it was built for important decisions: practical learning and direct discussions about how to launch faster, localise properly, and keep performance strong when it matters most. That’s what we’re bringing into 2026.”
Platform for Champions, Proven at ICE
GR8 Tech showcased Platform for Champions, giving operators a clear view of how the stack supports various launch and scaling scenarios. The biggest conversation starter was Crypto Turnkey—a new launch built for operators who want more control over payments, faster routes to market, and access to crypto-forward player demand. Across meetings, the team spoke with existing partners and new prospects about how crypto can remove PSP bottlenecks, strengthen payment uptime, and unlock higher-value segments. Turnkey conversations drew the strongest pull, accounting for around 60% of all discussions.
Champions Club, Delivering the Energy
GR8 Tech left ICE Barcelona 2026 with a full calendar of follow-ups—and a format proven to work. Champions Club kept the space in constant motion: athletes and performers on treadmills (even in heels), pad-work sessions with Lee McFarland from Behind the Gloves, and meetings completely booked.
Acceler8 Lab ran at full capacity throughout, with sessions delivered in partnership with Gaming Operations Academy. GR8 Tech experts joined industry specialists, including Scott Rowan (Bet Data Consultants) and Verónica Guerrero (ElenPAY), to cover crypto payments, sportsbook optimization, AI implementation, and more.
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bet365
Blask Awards 2025: Betano, Bet365, Betway and others lead global iGaming
The global results of the Blask Awards 2025 mark a decisive shift in how leadership is defined in the iGaming industry. Instead of juries, submissions or sponsorship packages, the awards rely entirely on data, measuring real demand, competitive strength and scalable performance across regulated markets worldwide.
At the center of this year’s global rankings stands Betano, which emerged as the most consistently dominant licensed operator across multiple continents. But the broader picture is more complex: a market where leadership fragments by region, speed of growth matters as much as scale, and games increasingly outperform brands in cross-border reach.
“Data is the jury,” said Max Tesla, co-founder and CEO of Blask. “In Blask Awards, brands don’t compete with those who submitted a form, they compete with the entire market”
Global operator rankings
Across worldwide categories, Betano claimed a commanding share of top honors:
- Leader of the Blask Year, awarded to the operator with the highest total number of Blask Awards in 2025
- Top CEB Performer, recognizing the strongest aggregate revenue baseline across regulated markets
- Blask Index Leader, reflecting the highest cumulative demand across licensed geographies
- Demand Surge of the Year, for the single largest 30-day demand increase recorded globally
Other global distinctions highlight how varied leadership has become:
- Fastest-Growing Brand: MrQ, posting the strongest year-over-year growth in demand
- Baseline Breakout: LakiWin, delivering the fastest increase in revenue baseline
- Top #1 Footprint: betPawa, holding the largest number of #1 market positions globally
- The Monopolist: Singapore Pools, achieving the single highest market power concentration in a regulated market
Together, the results show that global leadership is no longer defined by size alone. Momentum, efficiency and consistency increasingly matter as much as footprint.
Games and providers: global reach beats local borders
If operator leadership fragments by geography, games tell a different story.
In provider and game categories, Pragmatic Play dominated the global rankings, driven by the extraordinary reach of Gates of Olympus 1000, which won: Operator Footprint Champion, Lobby Legend, Slot of the Year
Pragmatic Play also secured Largest Catalog Provider and Full-Shelf Takeover, reflecting unmatched breadth and distribution.
Other game-level winners highlight emerging dynamics:
- Game Demand Leader: Chicken Road by InOut Games
- Breakout Game of the Year: Roulette European by 7777 gaming
Crash Game of the Year: Aviator by Spribe
Unlike operators, games increasingly scale globally, with player preferences converging across continents.
A different kind of award — and a long-term play
Blask Awards operate without applications, fees, sponsorships or jury voting. Winners are identified algorithmically, using Blask’s proprietary metrics — including Blask Index, BAP and CEB — across regulated markets only.
“This isn’t about trophies,” Tesla said. “It’s about creating a shared, verifiable language for the industry: one where anyone can open the data and see why a brand won. We’re not stopping here. Each year, the coverage gets wider, the benchmarks sharper, and the comparison fairer.”
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