NEXT.io Podcast

After his studies in Frankfurt and at Stanford University, Nico joined the IT department of Investment Banking of Commerzbank in Frankfurt and London. Being familiar with the demand for Real Time data in the finance industry and having a passion for Sports and Sports Betting, Nico left Commerzbank in 2012 to start Bet IT Best as a State of the Art and One Stop Shop for the Sports Betting industry....

Ken is the VP of Operations for Hotjar, a Malta-based start-up with over 150 remote team members currently distributed across 32 countries. Ken oversees People Operations, Finance, and Compliance at Hotjar. He is also a digital nomad and has been travelling the globe with his family for almost 7 years. Prior to his travels, Ken held leadership positions in traditional corporate environments where...

At GiG James is responsible for providing leadership and management on the delivery of sales objectives around the globe (managing both the sales and marketing teams). James has over 11 years’ experience in sales from the front line through to Group Sales Director (Clarion Gaming) leading all aspects of sales excellence driving revenue growth initiatives globally. He has successfully led and manag...

At GiG James is responsible for providing leadership and management on the delivery of sales objectives around the globe (managing both the sales and marketing teams). James has over 11 years’ experience in sales from the front line through to Group Sales Director (Clarion Gaming) leading all aspects of sales excellence driving revenue growth initiatives globally. He has successfully led and manag...

Andy is PwC’s esports industry leader across their global network. Andy helps organizations navigate through a fast-growing, global, emerging market; providing insights and expertise across a complex ecosystem. With 19+ years of experience at PwC UK, across a wide range of industries, and leading the global firm's activity in the esports sector for the last 4 years. Andy built an extensive externa...

Mr. Rafael (Rafi) Ashkenazi, is a former The Stars Group CEO and a future Executive Chairman of Hard Rock Digital. Previously a Playtech COO, he joined the Rational Group in 2013 and had been with the company that eventually became known as The Stars Group for seven years. Taking over as CEO in 2016, Rafi is widely recognized to have played an integral role in the business leaving an incredible fo...

Ben oversees the Commercial team at GiG, with responsibility for commercial agreements with our various suppliers and pricing models for GiG’s ever-expanding product range. His background is casino management, including MGM in Las Vegas, and Head of Casino Operations for Nordic Gaming Group. Ben joined GiG in 2013, as Head of Casino Operations and co-founder of Guts, and progressed to Managing Dir...

Robert Andersson is a passionate company builder with 18 years in leading positions with a great network in the Swedish and Baltic investment community. Focus on Business Development, marketing, strategic and organizational planning in the areas of Media, Games, and Product Development.

Sergey became Chief Executive Officer of Parimatch Holding in 2015. He has transformed the Company from a bookmaker trading out of physical stores into an innovative online technology business and internationally recognized lifestyle brand. Sergey has restructured the Company and transformed critical operational and business processes, leading to the Company's vigorous growth and performance. As C...

Björn started as a management trainee to Pontus Lindwall more than 20 years ago. Since then he has been committed to the industry and worked in various capacities with betting, trading, poker, and casino in both b2b and b2c businesses of various sizes. A serial entrepreneur that launched Triggy with two colleagues in 2017.

Oisin Lunny is an award-winning marketer, webinar and podcast host, MC, public speaker, virtual event consultant, and journalist. His work has been read over half a million times as a senior contributor to Forbes, The Guardian, and others. Oisin has spoken at over 250 conferences in every corner of the world, including TEDx and six times at SXSW, and he has worked in a series of leading global tec...

Paris Smith’s career in online gaming spans more than two decades, which includes more than 12 years as CEO of Pinnacle ( www.pinnacle.com ), one of the world’s most respected online bookmakers. Paris’ unmatched understanding of the online gaming business has led to her advising governments to develop regulatory frameworks, as well as working closely with key industry service providers.

Ulrik Bengtsson was appointed CEO of WilliamHILL on 30 September 2019, having been appointed CEO Designate on 5 September 2019. He had joined the Group as Chief Digital Officer and a member of the Group Executive Committee in April 2018. Ulrik was previously President and Chief Executive of Betsson Group, the Stockholm listed betting and gaming company that operates via gaming licences in 11 count...

Kresimir Spajic is Senior Vice President of Online Gaming for Hard Rock International. Spajic is responsible for leading the vision, strategy and operational execution behind the brand’s investment across interactive gaming platforms. Spajic is instrumental in securing new strategic partnerships and future opportunities to further position Hard Rock Hotels & Casinos as a global leader in the i...

Todd Haushalter is Chief Product Officer at Evolution Gaming. Todd is responsible for all aspects of Evolution’s game innovation and new product development, including the creation of award-winning titles such as MONOPOLY Live and Lightning Roulette. Prior to this, he was Corporate Vice President of Gaming Operations at MGM and Vice President of Business Strategy at Shuffle Master. He has a wide a...

David Flynn is a Management Executive with over 17 years of iGaming experience across both B2B and B2C verticals of the Online Gaming market. Currently, David is responsible for the strategic direction of Glitnor Group, encompassing its customer-facing brands, Luckycasino and Gambola and its rapidly growing B2B vertical Swintt.

Jesper Kärrbrink has a background in e-commerce, media and gambling. Several CEO positions since 1993, among those; Svenska Spel and Mr Green. Co-founder of gaming studio Green Jade Games.

Robin Eirik Reed Co-founded GiG 10 years ago and successfully grew the company to €150m revenue. In 2019, Robin became an inductee in the iGaming IDOL Hall of Fame. He has launched his new iGaming operator, Ichiban.

Manuel started in the gambling industry with BetBrain in 2005 in Bucharest, before relocating to London in 2008 to join Unibet. Manuel held roles focused on Central and Eastern Europe until 2012 when he moved on to the Head of Digial Marketing role and later Brand Marketing Director. In 2018, Manuel moved to New York to start Kindred’s operations in the US. Manuel holds a BSc in International Busi...

Phil Pearson is the Head of white labels and sales for iGaming Group and iGaming Platform, who specialise in a fully managed casino solution for MGA or curacao based operations. With a cutting edge back office, gamification, over 6000 games and counting, and fully managed CS and payment solutions, they are leading the market moving into 2021. Not one to shy away from controversy Phil is very outsp...

From establishing his first venture capital firm in 2017, Tim Heath continues to draw upon two decades of experience within the iGaming and emerging technology industries. He was an early adopter of Bitcoin in 2013 and is also the founder and CEO of the Coingaming Group, which operates the leading, globally recognised, crypto gaming brands, Bitcasino.io and Sportsbet.io. He orchestrated the Sports...

Soft2bet is pioneering the future of casino and sportsbook B2B platform supplier with an extensive portfolio comprising 30+ innovative brands; delivering top quality, gamified casino and sports betting content from some of the industry’s most prominent suppliers. Featuring over 5,000 of the best in slots, table games and live casino content from leading third-party developers and its own exclusive...

Jesper Svensson has been in the gaming industry since the mid-2000s. Over the years he worked in senior positions in several gaming companies in Europe and Asia. He joined Betsson in 2013 as the managing director of its flagship brand, betsson.com. In 2015 he became Betsson’s Chief Commercial Officer and was then made acting CEO in September 2017. Just three months later, he was appointed as CEO f...

Allan Stone is the CEO and Co-Founder of Intelitics. Intelitics’ igaming performance marketing and business intelligence saas platform provides Real-Time data in a clear and Accurate format, empowering operators to make agile, data-driven Decisions for informed media investing and customer acquisition to unlock hidden revenue and boost return on investment. When he’s not in the office Allan can be...

Rickard Vikström has 15 years of experience in building steadily growing businesses.  In 2008, he founded Stay Secure which became the largest anti-spam service in Sweden. The same year he co-founded Internet Vikings - a premium provider of hosting and related services with the focus on iGaming.  As a founder and a member of the Board Rickard is also involved in Holm Security working wit...