Nina Jelen, BlueOcean Gaming: “I don’t think that because of AI we are working less now. I think we are working even more”
Shows & conferences - 14 October, 2026
During SBC Summit Lisbon 2026, Focus Gaming News sat down with Nina Jelen, Chief Commercial Officer at BlueOcean Gaming, to discuss the upgrade of its Game Hub aggregator, its new Ride Along feature, its move into sweepstakes and its use of AI.
Jelen said Game Hub 2.0 is an upgrade of the company’s existing aggregator, designed to scale faster, handle many more transactions, store data in a more modern way and make it easier to enter new markets and comply with new regulations. The key, she said, is that the transition is “totally seamless” for operators, who should notice no disruption. “We kept what was already built in the great way, and we enhanced it.”
To stand out in a crowded aggregator market, BlueOcean is building an ecosystem of Game Hub tools, split into promotional and functional tools. Ride Along, a promotional tool, lets players bet alongside their favourite streamers on the same game, with independent stakes and results based on multipliers. Jelen said she believes BlueOcean is the first aggregator to offer such a product, and that it adds a social layer through chat and leaderboards.
On sweepstakes, she said the company entered the vertical a year and a half ago and decided it needed its own platform rather than acting only as an aggregator. The project proved more complex than expected, with new integrations, social elements and UI and UX considerations, but the knowledge flowed both ways, inspiring features for traditional casinos too.
On AI, Jelen said she cannot imagine a day without it, yet it has not reduced her team’s workload: “I think we are working even more.” It is still not good enough for creative work, she said, and should be used with a clear goal rather than “just for the sake of AI”. BlueOcean wants to incorporate it into its products in a way that benefits operators. As for events like SBC, she joked that she would welcome an AI robot to help with planning, “but I think we’re not there yet”.