The American Gambling Awards have announced more than 50 unique finalists across 14 categories for the inaugural edition of the awards. Gambling.com will present the winners with the Golden Eagle trophy on June 18th, 2019 at the All-American Sports Betting Summit. Custom designed and developed over the past 3 months, the Golden Eagle is the new icon of achievement in the regulated American market for online gambling.

The American Gambling Awards were launched in March, 2019 as the first awards program to recognize excellence among operators, suppliers, advocates, policymakers, lawyers and regulators supporting the regulated online gambling market in the United States.

To properly honor the achievements of the winners, the Gambling.com awards team insisted on developing a custom trophy to be the new icon of achievement in the industry. The team engaged Society Awards, the design house that produces the most recognizable trophies in the world, including those for the Oscars, the Golden Globes and the Emmys. Manufactured in America, the Golden Eagle trophy is an 11-inch, gold-plated, cast-pewter statuette of an American Bald Eagle, proudly resting in front of a pile of casino chips.

Charles Gillespie, Chief Executive of Gambling.com Group Plc, explains, “After announcing the American Gambling Awards in March, we received tremendous feedback and excitement from throughout the industry here in America. We are pleased to announce a strong list of contenders that represents the first movers, leaders and all around go-getters, paving the way in the American online gambling market. We’ve also had great fun developing the Golden Eagle trophy, an epic statuette that is unlike anything the gambling industry has seen before.”

The nominations for each award category will now be evaluated by a panel of more than 25 expert judges. To ensure the highest possible integrity, votes will be tallied by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The American Gambling Awards will culminate with a party and trophy presentation on June 18th, 2019 in association with the All-American Sports Betting Summit, organized by Eventus International. Matthew Berry, the fantasy sports analyst, New York Times best-selling author and host of The Fantasy Show on ESPN+, will host the party. Winners will be crowned as attendees celebrate at the historic Monmouth Park Racetrack in Oceanport, New Jersey on the 1 year anniversary of New Jersey’s first legal sports bet. The party is free to attend for all registered attendees of the All-American Sports Betting Summit, finalists, judges and others by invitation.

The finalists for the 14 award categories are:

American Operator of the Year

• Caesars Interactive Entertainment
• Golden Nugget
• MGM Resorts (Borgata + PlayMGM)
• Rush Street Interactive
• 888 Holdings

Sports Betting Operator of the Year

• Caesars
• DraftKings
• FanDuel
• PlayMGM
• William Hill

Casino Operator of the Year

• Betfair Casino
• Caesars
• Golden Nugget
• Rush Street Interactive
• Tropicana
• 888

Poker Operator of the Year

• Borgata
• WSOP
• 888

Fantasy Sports Operator of the Year

• DraftKings
• FanDuel
• FantasyDraft
• Monkey Knife Fight
• Playline
• Yahoo! Fantasy Sports

Horse Racing Operator of the Year

• OffTrackBetting.com
• TwinSpires
• TVG
• Xpressbet

Payments Provider of the Year

• EML
• PaySafe

Service Provider of the Year

• Optimove
• Fresh8 Gaming
• Digital Fuel
• Evolution Gaming
• GeoComply
• Income Access
• Sportradar
• Catena Media
• Vegas Kings

Corporate Transaction of the Year

• Bet365 & Hard Rock
• MGM Resorts & GVC
• MGM Resorts & Boyd Gaming
• Paddy Power Betfair & FanDuel
• The Stars Group & Eldorado Resorts

Responsible Gambling Award

• BetAmerica
• DraftKings
• FanDuel
• National Council on Problem Gambling
• Rush Street Interactive

Industry Supporter of the Year

• Joe Brennan Jr, CEO, SportAd
• Senator Raymond Lesniak, former New Jersey State Senator
• Dan Wallach, Wallach Legal
• GeoComply
• iDEA Growth

Lawyer of the Year

• Mark Hichar
• Jeff Ifrah
• Ted Olson

Policymaker of the Year

• Shawn Fluharty, West Virginia Delegate
• Bill Galvano, Florida State Senator
• Brandt Iden, Michigan State Representative
• J. Gary Pretlow, New York Assemblyman

Regulator of the Year

• Allen Godfrey, Mississippi Gaming Commission
• Susan Hensel, Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board
• David Rebuck, New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement

For more information about the American Gambling Awards, including a full list of award finalists and judges, please visit the awards website here: www.gambling.com/us/awards

Source: Gambling.com Group Plc