Winners of 2021 EGR Operator Awards announced at ceremony

The winners of the 2021 EGR Operator Awards were announced at a ceremony held at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel last night.

EGR is a world-leading membership network for companies within the online gaming industry. As well as running a series of networking events, it provides operators with industry-related news and analysis relating to fields including intel, technology and marketing.

The awards, described on the EGR website as ‘the Oscars of the eGaming industry’, reward business-to-consumer operators across a series of categories. This year saw the return of a physical awards ceremony following the disruption to last year’s proceedings caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Among this year’s big winners was bet365, which scooped up the awards for the Affiliate Programme, In-Play sports operator, Mobile Sports Product, and Sports Betting Operator categories.

Operator of the Year went to Entain, with the judges praising the extent of the company’s growth over the past year and drawing particular attention to the effectiveness of its US operations.

Other winners included Paddy Power, which won the Marketing Campaign award, and Tombola, the bingo brand recently acquired by Flutter Entertainment, which took home the award for Safer Gambling Operator of the Year.

MrQ won the award for Slots Operator, having previously won the Rising Star award in 2019 and been nominated in four categories in last year’s virtual awards. The judges commented that the relatively recently-established operator had “quickly built a large portfolio of content”.

Winners are determined by groups of judging panels, with each group allocated categories linked to their own specific areas of expertise. A shortlist is drawn up by a team of independent external judges before being sent to the final category-specific judges.

Judging for this year’s event took place from June 2020 to June 2021.

The complete list of this year’s winners:

• Affiliate of the Year: Gambling.com group

• Affiliate Programme for Affiliates: bet365 Partners

• Affiliate Rising Star: iBetDigital

• Bingo Affiliate: FTD Digital

• Bingo Operator: Foxy Bingo

• Casino Affiliate: Blexr

• Casino Operator: 888casino

• Customer Services Operator: Kaizen Gaming (Stoiximan/Betano)

• Diversity and Inclusion Model: Sky Betting and Gaming

• Employer of the Year: Sky Betting & Gaming

• eSports Operator: Betway Group

• Football Betting Operator: Kaizen Gaming (Stoiximan/Betano)

• Game of the Year: Pragmatic Play - Gates of Olympus

• Horse Race Betting Operator: Kindred Group

• In-House Product: 888

• In-Play Sports Operator: bet365

• Lottery Operator: Danske Spill

• Marketing Campaign: Paddy Power Bingo

• Marketing Campaign (affiliate companies only): Checkd Group

• Mobile Casino Product: LeoVegas

• Mobile Operator: Intouch Games

• Mobile Sports Product: bet365

• Operator of the Year: Entain

• Poker Operator: Poker Stars

• Rising Star (for operators only): Low6

• Safer Gambling Operator of the Year: tombola

• Slots Operator: MrQ.com

• Sports Affiliate: Skores media

• Sports Betting Operator: bet365

• Spread Betting Operator: PointsBet

• Virtual and Fantasy Sports Operator: Low6