Ace Alliance has shortlisted Gamblers Connect for Excellence in Responsible Gaming at the Ace Alliance iGaming Awards 2026, the first edition of the awards. The organiser announced the finalists on 7 October 2026. It will name the winners on 28 October and present the awards at its Horizon & Speed Rome event on 2 November.
Who else is on the shortlist
The category has five finalists, according to the organiser’s voting page: BetBlocker, BETER, Gamecheck, Mindway AI and Gamblers Connect. Gamblers Connect is the only media platform among them. The organiser’s judges chose the finalists from industry nominations, which closed on 5 October, the awards page states.
What the shortlisting points to
The Responsible Gambling Index is the only score Gamblers Connect publishes. For casino operators it applies 12 weighted criteria, among them deposit, loss, session and wagering limits, reality checks, self exclusion and the prevention of underage gambling. Game providers are assessed against a separate set of 12, covering areas such as RNG certification, game speed, game restrictions and a visible clock.
Results fall into five tiers, from Poor to Exceptional. An operator or provider reaches Exceptional only by meeting at least 11 of the 12 criteria for its category. The methodology page lists more than 300 operators and more than 10 game providers reviewed. The same method applies whether or not a company has a commercial relationship with Gamblers Connect, and companies have a right of factual reply on their score.
How the winners are chosen
Winners are decided by a combination of community voting and a review by the judges, according to the organiser. It names five judges: Lee-Ann Johnstone, host of The Affiliate Marketing Podcast; Mykhailo Kachanov, Chief Business Officer at SlotCatalog; Mike de Graaff, co founder and Chief Compliance Officer at BetComply; Dimitry Voelkle, Managing Director at Zelda Consulting; and Artem Gordadze, a growth and corporate development executive. The weighting between the public vote and the judges has not been published.
Community voting covers 17 categories and closes on 23 October 2026. A vote can only be submitted once a choice has been made in every category, and the organiser collects each voter’s name, company and email address to verify the process.
What comes next
Ace Alliance names the winners on 28 October 2026 and presents the awards at Horizon & Speed Rome on 2 November, according to its published timeline. The full Responsible Gambling Index methodology, with both sets of criteria and the tier scale, is published on Gamblers Connect.
