Jon Russell

Founder, StraightForecast

Jon Russell has spent thirty years in regulated betting, beginning in UK financial spread betting under FCA supervision. He built South Africa's first licensed corporate bookmaker in 1997 and spent ten years as Global Head of Trading at Betway Group, operating across more than forty licensed jurisdictions with directorships across group entities. He served three elected terms as Non-Executive Chair of the International Betting Integrity Association between 2019 and 2025, and was a Senior Advisor to IC360. He is the founder of StraightForecast, an independent advisory practice in Guernsey working across sports betting integrity, prediction market governance and regulatory design, and co-authored a 2026 submission to the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission on the regulation of prediction markets.