The Global Gaming Awards Las Vegas 2021 are delighted to announce the final Shortlist for the American Executive of the Year category, sponsored by Continent 8 Technologies. This is the only award category that recognizes the individual rather than the company.
The Global Gaming Awards are the most recognized, reputable and prestigious Awards in the gaming industry, mainly because of the fair and rigorous voting process, which ensures all winners are truly deserving.
Winners are chosen by a panel of 100 C-level industry executives, and KPMG in the Crown Dependencies independently adjudicates the entire voting process to ensure full fairness and transparency.
Additionally, every company or individual is shortlisted for a specific reason, which is then publicly announced in the official Global Gaming Awards Shortlist magazine.
“Our industry faced a lot of difficulties as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic but in the end we persevered and came out of it much stronger,” said Julian Perry, editor-in-chief of Gambling Insider and Gaming America. “The main reason for that is because of the many fantastic leaders that work tirelessly to drive their companies and the entire gaming industry forward. We can’t possibly recognize them all but with this Award we can at least try and recognize some of those people.”
The Las Vegas edition of the event rewards companies and individuals with outstanding performance in the Americas region over the past 12 months. The final Shortlist was decided after a long and rigorous process. Thousands of self-nominations from organizations across the sector, as well as the recommendations of the Awards’ independent nomination panel, were taken into account.
The full Shortlist will be released in the public domain in the coming weeks and the winners will be revealed on the Monday of G2E, October 4, at the Sands Expo in Las Vegas. For now, it is our absolute pleasure to share the full list of nominees in the American Executive of the Year category. This is the only Global Gaming Awards category that has 25 nominees instead of 10. You can find the reason why each of those individuals was shortlisted by clicking on their name. And the nominees are:
- Laila Mintas - CEO, PlayUp USA
- Jay Snowden - President & CEO, Penn National Gaming
- Soo Kim - Chairman, Bally’s Corporation
- Anna Sainsbury - Founder and Chairman, GeoComply
- Elaine Hodgson - President & CEO, Incredible Technologies
- Joseph Pappano - CEO, Sightline Payments
- Kimberly Van Amburg - CEO, Casino del Sol
- Adam Greenblatt - CEO, BetMGM
- Terry Glebocki - CEO, Ocean Casino Resorts
- Renato Ascoli - CEO Global Gaming, IGT
- John Connelly - CEO, Interblock
- Melonie Johnson - President & COO, Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa
- Howard Glaser - Head of Government Affairs and Special Initiatives, Scientific Games
- Kim Nasuta - Vice President of Human Resources, AGS
- Sheila Morago - Executive Director, Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association
- Hector Fernandez - President, Americas, Aristocrat Gaming
- Rebecca Paul Hargrove - President & CEO, Tennessee Lottery
- Jason Robins - CEO & Co-Founder, DraftKings
- Ellen Whittemore - EVP & General Counsel, Wynn Resorts
- Ernie Stevens, Jr. - Chairman, National Indian Gaming Association
- Vickie Chen - Founder & CEO, Avia Games
- Chris Bevilacqua - Co-Founder & CEO, Simplebet
- Cassie Stratford - VP of Legal Affairs, Boyd Gaming
- Richard Schwartz - CEO, Rush Street Interactive
- Derek Stevens - CEO, Circa Resort
The American Executive of the year award is sponsored by Continent 8 Technologies. BetConstruct is the Lead Partner of the Global Gaming Awards Las Vegas 2021, and other category sponsors include IGT, Interblock, Connective Games, Scientific Games, Greentube, Aristocrat and Casino Trac.
