Birgitte Sand Is Announced as SBC’s Sports Betting Hall of Fame Inductee

Denmark’s key figure in the development and growth of the casino industry in the country, Birgitte Sand, will be inducted into the Sports Betting Hall of Fame. Sand is one of the leading experts in the industry in Denmark, and the induction is set to take place on the last day of the well-known conference and exhibition Betting on Sports Europe.

Recognizing Contributors to the Industry

SBC launched the Sports Betting Hall of Fame back in 2016 with the goal of providing the biggest spotlight to individuals that have made over-the-top contributions to the casino industry. Its latest members will be celebrated on November 11 at the National History Museum in London.

Sand worked as the Director-General of the Danish Gambling Authority (DGA) for 12 years, which is how she became well-known in the industry. While working at the DGA, her responsibility was constructing and consolidating a liberal licensing regime that covers online casinos, betting, lotteries, land-based casinos and gaming machines.

Moreover, Sand is the past president and patron of the International Association of Gaming Regulators. In her 25-year career, she’s covered in-depth restructuring tasks, implemented various comprehensive lax complexes, as well as digital transformations. All of these achievements have allowed her to accumulate massive experience as a leader.

Those skills are now quite handy as she uses them, as well as the experience in in-debt dialogue relationships between the gambling industry and regulators in her work on boards and her own businesses – Birgitte Sand & Associates.

Grateful for the Recognition

Sand is no stranger to prestigious awards. Before she was officially announced as an inductee into the Sports Betting Hall of Fame, she had quite a few achievements, including the VIXIO GamblingCompliance Lifetime Achievement Special Award and IMGL European Regulator of the year 2017.

While speaking about the induction, Sand said that she’s grateful to the SBC and proud to be a part of a group that has so many influential people. She sees this recognition as a great expression of the importance of maintaining a good dialogue relationship between the industry and regulators.

Other inductees into the European Sports Betting Hall of Fame Class of 2021 include Jan Svendsen (founder of Triobet, Coolbet and Nordicbet), Simon Bold (former Bwin International CEO and former SBGL CEO), Ludovico Calvi (President of the Global Lottery Monitoring System), Clive Hawkswood (former CEO of RGA and former Chairman of RAiG), and Vincent Caldwell (Chairman and CEO of Virtual Software and founder of betinternet).

On the other side, the North American Sports Betting Hall of Fame 2021 includes Joe Asher (President of Sports Betting, IGT), Jimmy Vaccaro (Las Vegas bookmaker and South Point Hotel & Casino Marketing Director), Yolanda Acuña (Former Director of Race & Sports Administration at MGM Resorts International), Johnny Avello (DraftKings Director of Race & Sportsbook Operations) and Joe Brennan Jr (Former IMEGA Chair). They will be inducted into the Hall of Fame during the SBC Summit North America trade show and conference, which will take place on December 1 this year, at MetLife Stadium.

Previous Inductees Into The Sports Betting Hall of Fame

The Sports Betting Hall of Fame was created by SBC in 2016 with the goal of honoring individuals that have had massive accomplishments and managed to bring long-lasting success to the industry. The first inductees in the Hall of Fame were Howard Chisholm (Bookmakers Technology Consortium Director), Carsten Koerl (Sportradar founder and CEO) and Mark Blandford (Sportingbet founder).

In 2017, the Hall of Fame welcomed Vigen Badalyan (BetConstruct founder), Paris Smith (Pinnacle CEO) and Fred Done (founder of Betfred). The year 2018 resulted in Pontus Lindwall (CEO of Betsson), Fabio Schiavolin (CEO of Snaitech), Norbert Teufelberger (co-founder of Bwin), Warwick Bartlett (GBGC CEO) and Constantinos Antonopoulos (Intralot Vice-Chairman) being inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Next up, Armin Sageder (founder of BGT and Paysafecard), Denise Coates (bet365 founder and CEO), John Anderson (former CEO of 888Holdings), John Boyle (BoyleSports founder and Chairman), Chris Christie (former Governor of New Jersey), Richard Flint (Flutter Entertainment Non-Exclusive Director and former Sky Betting & Gaming CEO), Dennis Drazin (Monmouth Park CEO) and Art Manteris (Station Casinos retired VP Race and Sports Book Operations) were honored in 2019.

The year 2020 welcomed Jay Rood (SVP, Risk & Trading at Bally’s Interactive), Victor Chandler (founder of BetVictor), Giovanni Garrisi (CEO of StanleyBet), Ralph Topping (former CEO of William Hill), Bill Mummery (online betting pioneer on the Asian market), Juan B. Pérez Hidalgo (Coljuegos former President), Raymond Lesniak (former New Jersey state Senator), Victor Salerno (USBookmaking & US Fantasy Sports President), Sara Slane (AGA former Sr. VP) and Roxy Roxborough (Las Vegas oddsmaker).