Charity Focused Women in Gaming Awards announced Winners

The Women in Gaming (WIG) Awards hosted by Clever Duck Media took place in The Jumeirah Carlton Tower, Knightsbridge on 6 June 2014.

In total 120 people attended the black tie event, which had a Glamorous theme in support of Breakthrough Breast Cancer charity.

The winners of the Women in Gaming Awards 2014 were announced at a glittering ceremony on the evening of Friday 6 June, which took place at Jumeirah Carlton Tower Hotel in London.

Guests were treated to a VIP reception party in the elegant garden room, as Indigo Soul played the latest sounds. As guests took to their beautifully decorated tables in the Ballroom, they were treated to a delicious three-course meal.

The event’s chosen charity this year was Breakthrough Breast Cancer research, with proceeds from the raffle going towards the charity’s vital research work.

The International Woman in Gaming Awards has been created to highlight the exceptional women working in Land based and iGaming industry, role models that show it is an industry that offers exciting career opportunities for women on both a National and Global basis.

Most prestigious Award – The Industry Pride – was given to Michaela Michaylova from Unibet and Hodan Fouri from Poker Stars. Both are outstanding role models and business leaders.

Colin Thompson of Clever Duck Media organizer if the WIG event, says “The Women in Gaming Networking Awards is most enjoyable evening of the year. We think that it is important to highlight female business talent in the male dominated industry and most importantly contribution made to the business by ladies. One of prime examples this year is Hodan Fourie from Poker Stars – Exceptional Business leader, wife and mother; truly outstanding. We’re completely thrilled to be part of such an exciting event, which reflects the industry. Everyone enjoyed themselves and it gave the WIG Awards the recognition which we believe they deserve. A big well done and thank you to everyone who entered, and if you missed out – don’t worry, there will always be next year!”

The winners of the 5th Women in Gaming Awards included:

Affiliate Manager of the Year: Mealnie Hainzer- Leo Vegas

Affiliate Team of the Year: Carly Sawers- Poker Stars

Excellence in Customer Service : Melissa Zalbeigi- Betsson

Industry Achiever: Joanne Jones – The Ritz Club

Innovator of the Year: Emma Loveday – Sun Bingo

Inspiration of the Year: Cath Riley – Grosvenor Casinos

iGaming Leader of the Year: Maria Hedengren – NetEnt

LandBased Leader of the Year: Dubravka Burda – Gtech

Star of the Future: Bea Stevens – Aspers

Hidden Talent of the Year: Elizabeth Dutton – Playtech

Marketing Excellence: Nora Felin – Mr Green

Team of the Year iGaming: Linda Arbman – Mr Green

Team of the Year Land Based: Fiona Regan – Rank plc

Industry Pride of the Year: Michaela Mychailova – Unibet & Hodan Fourie – Poker Stars

The Women in Gaming Awards supported by generous sponsors share its mission of empowering, inspiring and educating women. Our Sponsors are Playtech and Emp Corporation.

Playtech develops unified software platforms and content for the remote and land-based gaming industry. Leading gaming applications include casino, poker, bingo, sports betting, live gaming, casual and fixed odds games. Playtech provides licensees with the tools to maximise cross-selling opportunities, player loyalty and yield, all through the powerful management interface;

EMP corp, have the skills and knowledge to meet all of your needs. Boasting of ten years of experience with E-commerce, EMP corp is a leader in the payment industry. We offer financial expertise and E-money payments. Our system is easy enough for beginning businesses and technological enough for large corporations. Each merchant receives a program perfectly designed to meet their unique processing needs. This global payment method focuses on card processing and E-money systems.