iGB Affiliate Awards 2025

Corey Padveen is a Partner at t2 Marketing International, and the author of Marketing to Millennials for Dummies, as well as a contributing author to Digital Marketing All-in-One for Dummies.

Lee-Ann Johnstone entered the affiliate marketing industry in the early 2000s when the internet was still new and mobile phones were BIG. She has managed many blue chip and startup affiliate programmes, helping them grow global reach across verticals from retail and ecommerce, payments and fintech, to esports and igaming. Lee-Ann also hosts the award-winning Affiliate Marketing Podcast, which charts regularly in the Top 100 Business News podcasts in the world. She runs a 12-week acceleration programme for affiliate managers (AMPP) and owns award-winning agency Affiverse providing outsourced affiliate programme management services. Inaugurated as a member of the prestigious forbes.com Agency Council (2020) Lee-Ann regularly features in publications such as The Drum, Hello Partner, MartechRecord, GPWA, IGB Affiliate and Forbes.com.

Ben Robinson is the Co-Founder of RB Capital, a specialist M&A and funding brokerage, combining best-in-breed expertise for growth, investment and M&A across gaming, fintech and media verticals. Ben has more than 20 years’ commercial experience across technology and media, of which the last ten have been deeply embedded in the online gambling and blockchain sectors. Subsequently Ben sits on a number of advisory boards for fintech and igaming companies across Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Americas.

An igaming veteran with a specialty in Affiliate Management, Claire Adamou launched her own consultancy business back in 2017 to assist operators with launching and growing their affiliate business within the igaming space.

Simon Collins is an investor focused on the development and growth of new gaming opportunities. He has a 25-year track record of launching and building valuable iGaming brands. Simon was a co-founder of Foxy Bingo owner Cashcade Ltd prior to its sale to bwin.party for £96m in July 2009, going on to become managing partner of bwin.party-backed investment fund New Game Capital. He then launched mobile gaming start-up Gaming Realms plc with his fellow Cashcade founders. Following the sale of its real-money subsidiary in 2019, he joined News UK as MD, Betting & Gaming, where he oversaw the development and growth of brands including Dream Team, Sun Bingo, and Sun Racing. After departing the role earlier this year he is now working on new opportunities.

Elaine Gardiner-Ruddock is Affiliate Operations Manager, TAG Media. Elaine has over 14 years’ experience in the iGaming affiliate industry, and has held various positions throughout the years from Affiliate Manager to Head of Affiliates and everything else in between.

Shahar Attias is a globally recognised igaming expert, CRM strategist and frequent speaker at the industry's leading events. Following a career as a senior executive with 888, Playtech and PokerStars, Shahar founded Hybrid Interaction, a boutique consulting agency which has undertaken more than 200 successful projects across all verticals and most jurisdictions. These include online migrations with brick-and-mortar casinos in the Netherlands, Switzerland, Georgia, UK and US and with gambling powerhouses such as Greentube, Hard Rock & PlayStar in NJ (US), GiG, Casino du Lac (Partouche), Logrand (Mexico), Holland Casino, Grand Casino Baden, Groupe Barrière, Entain (Bwin.Party/Sportingbet/Bet.pt), IGT, William Hill, BetConstruct and Win2day. 

Helen Walton is founder and CCO of G.Games, an award-winning games supplier that has grown to a portfolio of over 200 games served around the world in lotteries and casinos. She started her career at Unilever and has worked with Boots, Frucor, Tate Britain, PZ Cussons launching new products, brands and finding ways to connect with customers. She is a dealmaker, writer and marketer who enjoys solving problems, trying out ideas and making things happen. 

Kevin Dale has spent the last 20 years in online gaming and runs data and advisory company egamingmonitor.com, which covers 50,000 casino games, 500 bingo rooms and 800 lottery draw products from 1,500 suppliers across 2,800 operators. He was previously CEO of online skill gaming company GAN plc and marketing director at Betfair, Sportingbet and Eurobet. 

Christina Thakor-Rankin is co-founder of the All-in Diversity Project, which advocates for a data-driven approach to improving inclusion in gaming, and also runs a consultancy business. Her career in the industry spans 25 years and the whole betting and gambling ecosystem, including land-based, online and mobile gaming. She firmly believes that diversity and inclusion are critical to success in business.

Shona ODonnell is the head of strategic events for Better Collective, a leading digital sports media group. Since joining she has created The Better Collective Bookmaker Awards, a series based on data to help consumers find the best bookie for them. She is also responsible for the group’s brand at events globally. With over 15 years of experience in the igaming sector, much of that focused on the affiliate market, Shona has been responsible for the creation and development of some of the industry’s biggest events, including iGB L!VE!, LAC, Sports Betting USA and ICE London.

Vanessa Simpson is a communications professional with a background in investor relations and consumer PR. SHe has experience in a wide range of communications fields including crisis management, corporate marketing, M&A, financial PR and consumer media relations. Vanessa has worked with some of the world’s most known gaming brands including PokerStars, FanDuel and Sky Betting & Gaming. She is currently serving as Communications Director at ACE Hollreiser and Head of Communications at SG:certified.

With over 15 years’ experience in the online gaming industry, Katy Stafford is a seasoned marketing professional specialising in new player acquisition, predominantly within affiliation. Katy has previously managed the affiliate programmes for ComeOn Group and more recently served as Director of Acquisition at Casumo. She is currently working as an acquisition consultant assisting igaming startups with creating and executing strategic plans for optimal traffic and revenue performance.

David da Silva is CEO of Easyodds.com and brings a unique combination of commercial strategy, digital marketing and regulated gaming to the judging panel. His interests extend across product innovation and service design to create business platforms that drive commercial success and differentiation.

Simon Pilkington has 17 years’ experience within the igaming industry with a specific focus on affiliation and content strategy. Previously the CEO of super affiliate KaFe Rocks (now Time2Play Media), Simon now runs his own consultancy business, SMPL Consulting. He also recently launched a JV recruitment business, Wander, aimed at helping improve standards within the industry one person at a time.

Erica Anderson is the VP of Marketing, iGaming & Income Access, at Paysafe Group. Her role
focuses on developing the marketing strategy for the Income Access brand, as well as the
igaming division of Paysafe. Holding over a decade’s industry experience, she also oversees
the company’s in-house affiliate management team and its suite of digital marketing
services being offered to leading global igaming brands.

Sarafina Wolde-Gabriel has over 19 years of experience in digital marketing and more than a decade’s worth of expertise in leadership within the igaming and marketing sectors. Sarafina joined Paysafe’s Income Access, a digital marketing technology and services provider, in 2004 as a leader of its in-house affiliate management team. Going on to serve as Director of Affiliate Marketing, CMO and VP of Strategy over 18 years at the company, Income Access collected six iGB Affiliate awards for Best Affiliate Network, five for Best Affiliate Software and three Best Acquisition Partner awards. In 2022, Sarafina joined geolocation and fraud prevention company GeoComply as a senior director, focused on new business development and international expansion. Sarafina is now Chief Strategy Officer at marketing compliance company Rightlander, where her responsibilities include developing business strategies to help grow and expand into new markets and verticals, evaluate new product opportunities and build strategic partnerships.

Gareth Mulley runs the marketing practice within Pentasia across Europe, Latam and the Middle East. He is passionate about affiliate marketing and recruiting the best talent into positions within operators and affiliate businesses focusing on the igaming sector.

After spending more than a decade working for Gala Coral Interactive, Betfred and GentingBet, Victoria Reed saw firsthand the devastation caused by gambling addiction and decided she had to act. As a recent alumna of Harvard Business School, she teamed up with her fellow classmate and together they started Better Change. By challenging the status quo and truly partnering with operators to help them raise standards through improved compliance, innovative social responsibility strategies and robust safer gambling tools designed to maximise player protection, she is determined to sustain the industry and deliver clear, sustainable and progressive results for their partners and their players. 

Peter Mares is the founder and CEO of sci:ent, a company focused on delivering technology to the
igaming industry through its bespoke technology-at-source business model. He has been
involved in the design and delivery of tech for the industry for almost 20 years, having worked
with a number of industry leaders delivering innovative platforms and solutions during his
career. He is also a passionate advocate for D&I within the industry (and in general).

Thies Petersen is a seasoned software engineer whose career began in 2005. His journey started in usability consultancy and BI development, establishing the foundation for his eventual entrance into igaming in 2017. At prominent affiliate WIS, Thies played a crucial role in founding and developing the engineering department, where he managed frontend and backend development, QA, IT, DevOps and emerging technologies. In July 2022, Thies took on a new challenge as the Group Head of Software Engineering at Catena Media, where he leveraged his extensive experience and leadership to further his impact in the tech domain. Thies' career progression continued as he joined Blexr in January 2024, where he now applies his deep expertise as the Head of Engineering to lead and drive innovation within the engineering team.