Nominations open for the 2027 RTG Global Awards as program expands to twelve categories
The RTG Global Awards have opened nominations for their 2027 edition, expanding from six to 12 categories to recognise excellence in gambling regulation, compliance, integrity, safer gambling, and research, while introducing new awards focused on black-market disruption and harm-prevention initiatives.
Press release.- The RTG Global Awards have opened nominations for 2027, returning for a second edition with an expanded programme of twelve categories following a successful inaugural year.
Presented by Regulating the Game, the RTG Global Awards recognise principled leadership, capability and contribution across the international gambling regulatory and sector community. The inaugural awards were conferred across six categories in March 2026 and drew strong interest from regulators, operators, suppliers, researchers, clinicians and advisers worldwide. For 2027, the programme broadens its reach with six new categories, bringing the total to twelve and widening recognition across the full breadth of regulatory practice, integrity, harm prevention and sector contribution.
Six new categories for 2027
The six new categories introduced for 2027 are Gambling Harm Prevention Campaign, recognising awareness and education initiatives; Research Impact, celebrating evidence led work translated into practical outcomes; Sport and Wagering Integrity Initiative, honouring programmes that protect sporting fairness and wagering integrity; Compliance Advisory, recognising advisory services that strengthen governance and capability; Black-Market Disruption Initiative, acknowledging efforts to counter illegal and unregulated gambling; and Distinguished Contribution, honouring exceptional and enduring service to the sector.
They join the six returning categories — Leadership Voice, Safer Gambling Champion, Compliance Excellence, RegTech Solution, Community Impact Initiative and Emerging Leader — recognised at the inaugural awards in 2026.
Black-market disruption
The Black-Market Disruption Initiative category responds to one of the fastest-growing pressures on regulated markets. Illegal and unregulated operators erode consumer protection, divert activity and revenue away from licensed markets, and place customers beyond the reach of harm minimisation measures. Some jurisdictions have met this with a decision to regulate. New Zealand’s licensing of online casino gambling is not the creation of a new market; it is an existing one being drawn inside a regulated perimeter, with consumer protection, harm minimisation obligations and enforcement attached to it.
Much of this work is necessarily public. It means naming the policy challenge plainly, building the support and collaboration needed to answer it, and pushing back on the two responses that make the problem worse: retreat into prohibition, which surrenders the market and its customers to unlicensed operators, and regulation or taxation set so heavily that the licensed channel cannot hold the customers it was built to protect. The technical work runs alongside it — payment and ISP blocking, cross-border intelligence sharing, enforcement action and litigation, and disruption of payment rails and affiliate and advertising channels.
Regulating the Game encourages regulators, operators and industry bodies in every jurisdiction to nominate and set out what they did and what it achieved. The category is open to work at any scale, from key policy initiatives to coordinated international action, and nominations are welcomed from mature and emerging markets alike. Recognition here is intended to make effective practice visible to those confronting the same problem elsewhere.
The 2027 judging panel
Nominations for 2027 will be assessed by a distinguished and independent judging panel drawn from across the international regulatory, industry, integrity and research community. Confirmed panellists include Khalid Ali, chief executive officer of the International Betting Integrity Association; Kai Cantwell, chief executive officer of Responsible Wagering Australia; Peter Cohen of The Agenda Group; professor Paul Delfabbro of the University of Adelaide; Don Hammond, chief executive officer of Leagues Clubs Australia; Tracy Parker of the Responsible Gambling Council; Dan Rule of Endeavour Group; Tess Salmon of Aube Communications; and Dan Waugh of Regulus Partners. Further appointments to the panel will be confirmed shortly, including a senior gambling regulator of international standing.
Nominations open to all
Nominations are open worldwide to individuals, organisations and initiatives, with eligible work undertaken within the past twelve months. Both self-nominations and third-party nominations are welcomed. Regulating the Game encourages the sector to put forward a colleague, team or initiative deserving of recognition, and equally encourages individuals and organisations to nominate their own work and achievements with confidence. Anonymous submissions are not accepted.
“The inaugural awards showed the appetite across our sector to recognise the people and organisations lifting standards, strengthening integrity and improving outcomes,” said Paul Newson, founder of Regulating the Game and Principal at Vanguard Overwatch. “For 2027 we have widened the field to twelve categories so that recognition reaches further, across harm prevention, integrity, research, and enduring contribution, as well as leadership and compliance. I would encourage the sector to nominate someone deserving of recognition, and to put their own work forward with confidence. Reward and recognition matter, and this is a moment to acknowledge those doing the work that sustains public trust.”
Key dates
Nominations are open until December 21, 2026, with finalists announced on February 1 2027, and winners recognised at the RTG Global Awards Gala Dinner on the evening of March 9, 2027 at the Sofitel Sydney Wentworth.
Event details
RTG Global Awards, Regulating the Game 2027 Sydney
Nominations close December 21, 2026
RTG Global Awards Gala Dinner: March 9, 2027
Sofitel Sydney Wentworth, Sydney, Australia
