Andy Cunningham joins the twelve-member judging panel for the 2027 RTG Global Awards

The 2027 awards double their categories to 12, adding recognition for sports integrity, black market disruption and gambling harm prevention.

Key takeaways:

• Andy Cunningham, Principal of Praxis Integrity, has joined the independent judging panel for the 2027 RTG Global Awards.
• The panel now comprises 12 judges assessing nominations across 12 award categories.
• Six new categories include Sport & Wagering Integrity Initiative and Black Market Disruption Initiative.
• Nominations are open worldwide to individuals, organisations and initiatives, with eligible work undertaken or materially advanced in the previous 12 months.
• Nominations close on December 21, 2026, finalists will be announced on February 1, 2027, and the awards gala will take place on March 9, 2027.

Press release.- Regulating the Game has appointed sports integrity specialist Andy Cunningham to the judging panel for the 2027 RTG Global Awards, strengthening the expertise assessing work across gambling regulation, compliance and market integrity. The expanded programme introduces six new categories, reflecting industry priorities including gambling harm prevention, illegal market disruption and the protection of sports and wagering integrity.

Nominations close on December 21, 2026. Finalists will be announced on February 1, 2027 and winners recognised at the RTG Global Awards Gala Dinner on the evening of March 9, 2027, the second night of the conference.

Andy Cunningham joins the panel

Andy Cunningham has more than 20 years’ experience in sports integrity and has supported sporting bodies, law enforcement agencies, betting regulators and wagering operators around the world in the prevention, detection and investigation of integrity issues and match-fixing.

He is principal at Praxis Integrity, assisting the sports and wagering industries to protect their stakeholders from integrity threats and gambling harm. He previously led Sportradar’s Integrity Services Partnerships Team for over a decade, working closely with sporting bodies and government agencies globally, including the US major leagues and college sports organisations, Australia’s largest sporting codes, international federations and leading esports publishers. Before Sportradar, he spent ten years heading up Betfair’s integrity team, overseeing the systems and processes used to monitor wagering patterns, identify suspicious activity and report findings to regulators and sports.

He has acted as an expert witness in match-fixing disciplinary proceedings and criminal court cases, and has testified in US state legislative hearings on sports betting regulation and integrity best practice. He has served on International Olympic Committee, United Nations and Australian government expert working groups on countering corruption in sport.

His appointment adds that experience to the assessment of two categories introduced for 2027, the Sport & Wagering Integrity Initiative and the Black Market Disruption Initiative.

The 2027 judging panel

The panel sits outside Regulating the Game and comprises former regulators, sector leaders, integrity specialists and researchers. All twelve judges review entries across the full programme of twelve categories. The panel as it now stands is:

• Khalid Ali, chief executive officer, International Betting Integrity Association
• Kai Cantwell, chief executive officer, Responsible Wagering Australia
• Peter Cohen, director of Regulatory Affairs, The Agenda Group
• Andy Cunningham, principal, Praxis Integrity, and former senior vice president, Global Partnerships, Integrity Services, Sportradar
• Professor Paul Delfabbro, School of Psychology, Adelaide University
• Don Hammond, chief executive officer, Leagues Clubs Australia
• Richard Howarth, managing director for Asia Pacific, Gaming Laboratories International
• Tim Miller, founder and managing director, GamReg Consulting, and former executive director of the UK Gambling Commission
• Tracy Parker, senior vice president, accreditation, advisory and insights, Responsible Gambling Council
• Dan Rule, general manager, regulatory and compliance, Endeavour Group
• Tess Salmon, principal and founder, Aube Communications
• Dan Waugh, partner, Regulus Partners

Twelve categories, six of them new

The programme doubled from six categories to twelve for 2027. The six returning categories are Leadership Voice, Safer Gambling Champion, Compliance Excellence, RegTech Solution, Community Impact Initiative and Emerging Leader. The six categories introduced for 2027 are:

• Gambling Harm Prevention Campaign, for campaigns, programmes and initiatives that reduce gambling-related harm through education, awareness or early intervention.
• Research Impact, for research or evaluation work translated into practical outcomes for policy, regulation or industry practice.
• Sport & Wagering Integrity Initiative, for initiatives that protect the fairness and credibility of sport and wagering markets, including monitoring systems, suspicious betting detection, participant education, information sharing and investigative partnerships.
• Compliance Advisory, for advisory firms and service providers that have delivered serious financial crime, compliance or regulatory advice to the sector, including control framework design, remediation, independent reviews and assurance work.
• Black Market Disruption Initiative, for initiatives that disrupt, deter or expose illegal gambling activity, including enforcement operations, payment and advertising disruption, detection tools, channelisation strategies and cross-border intelligence sharing.
• Distinguished Contribution, for an individual whose exceptional contribution to gambling regulation, integrity or industry reform has been sustained over an extended period.

The six additions were selected against the policy problems common to regulators and operators in very different jurisdictions: exposure to financial crime, gambling harm, the leakage of activity into illegal markets, the integrity of sport and wagering, and the few who capably bridge research into regulatory and sector practice.

Nominations open until December 21

Nominations are open worldwide to individuals, organisations and initiatives, with eligible work undertaken or materially advanced within the past twelve months. Self-nominations, third-party nominations and joint submissions are all accepted. Anonymous submissions are not accepted. Eligible entrants include operators across betting, wagering, casino, club and pub, technology providers, RegTech and safer gambling suppliers, racing controlling bodies, regulators, individual professionals, researchers and not-for-profit organisations.

The inaugural awards were conferred across six categories in March 2026, with GambleAlert in Nigeria winning Safer Gambling Champion.

Paul Newson, founder of Regulating the Game and principal at Vanguard Overwatch, commented: “These awards exist to give standing to the stewards of this sector: the people hardening operators and markets against financial crime, lifting compliance and regulatory capability, reducing harm, protecting the integrity of sport and wagering, and carrying research into practice. That work is done carefully and quietly, and sits largely unseen beneath the scrutiny and criticism this sector attracts, and the awards are an attempt to bring it into view.”

Then, he added: “The panel brings senior expertise and standing to that assessment. Twelve judges with regulatory, integrity, research and operational experience across several markets assess the categories to which they are assigned. Andy Cunningham brings two decades of sports integrity work conducted at an international level. I would encourage the people doing this work to put it forward, and to do so with confidence.”

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

• Who is judging the 2027 RTG Global Awards? The independent panel comprises 12 judges from gambling regulation, sports integrity, responsible gambling, research and industry leadership, including Andy Cunningham of Praxis Integrity.
• What are the new categories in the 2027 RTG Global Awards? The six additions are Gambling Harm Prevention Campaign, Research Impact, Sport & Wagering Integrity Initiative, Compliance Advisory, Black Market Disruption Initiative and Distinguished Contribution.
• When do nominations close for the 2027 RTG Global Awards? Nominations close on December 21, 2026. Finalists will be announced on February 1, 2027.
• When will the 2027 RTG Global Awards winners be announced? The winners will be recognised at the RTG Global Awards Gala Dinner on March 9, 2027, the second evening of the Regulating the Game conference.