The jury of the Best iGaming Experts Annual Awards has closed the third and final round of deliberation. The winners in all three categories were decided on July 31 and are published today, August 1, 2026 — the date fixed when the cycle opened in June. Three names come out of a shortlist of eight.
Best iGaming Expert 2026 — Leo K. Weber
The main category goes to Leo K. Weber, editor-in-chief of his own gambling-focused projects and co-author of several gaming portals. He came to publishing after years of hands-on work with online casino platforms and land-based casinos, close to data and probability models, and that background still sets the tone of what he writes: less opinion, more numbers.
His reading of the DACH markets — Germany, Austria and Switzerland — travels well beyond his own sites. On X, where he has become one of the recognisable voices of the region, his threads on licensing, compliance and market entry are passed around by operators and affiliates alike.
Voice of the iGaming Industry — Lorenzo Vitali
Lorenzo Vitali edits one of Italy's most popular gambling publications, and the category matches the two registers his work runs in. One is daily editorial coverage of the Italian market. The other is academic: he is a published publicist and the author of research on gambling.
Editorial leadership and scholarly work rarely appear in the same biography. In Italy, the standard of iGaming journalism has moved because in his case they do.
Rising Star — Jan Woźniak
The category the award reserves for fresh voices goes to Jan Woźniak. As Product Owner at SOFTSWISS he holds the roles of project lead, product manager and marketer on a casino platform at once; outside those hours he runs gambling ventures of his own and consults for casinos and casino software developers.
Platform-side experience of that kind sits next to independent consulting only rarely, and almost never this early in a career. It is what makes his advice on product, platform and go-to-market decisions worth the hour.
The rest of the shortlist
Five finalists complete the 2026 shortlist: Mike Betoray, Lina Murphey-Gaelle, Markus Komovic, Giulio Caruso and Vasco Oliveira. Between them they cover sports betting analysis, policy advocacy, advisory work, game design and Portuguese-language publishing. All five keep the status of Finalist 2026 and the Finalist badge that comes with it, and their full profiles stay published.
How the decision was made
Deliberation ran from July 17 to July 31 in three rounds, as announced at the start of the process. In the first round every jury member reviewed the shortlist independently. In the second, finalists were matched to categories and the field was narrowed. In the third, the panel agreed on one winner per category.
The four-member panel — Vera Vilchek, Gregory Matesienkevic, Nick LeBraune and Craig Himsworthy — covers regulation, marketing, social impact and media. The principles and integrity rules the jury works under are published in full, as is the shortlist it worked from.
Next: the 2027 edition
Entries for 2027 are open. There is no fee and no paid fast track: choose a category or propose your own, describe your work in free form, attach what shows your contribution, and send it in one email. The steps are on the how to apply page.
Winners and finalists can pick up their official badge kits, in light and dark versions with an embed snippet that links back to the published results, on the Press & Badges page.
← Back to all news