For 16 years, IESF has democratically elected its leadership, ensuring transparency and accountability towards its member federations.

This year, during the Ordinary General Meeting (OGM) in Riyadh in November, IESF held democratic elections for several key positions within the Board and the commissions.

Mr. Samart Benjamin Assarasakorn was elected as an Executive Board Member among 7 other candidates. As an executive in sports, and marketing and with vast experience in esports, Mr. Samart is a valuable addition to the executive board.

For the first time, elections were held for the position of Treasurer and Mr. Daniel Loy received majority support from the voting members. His unique approach to sports and finance will help IESF restructure the entire financial model and governance structure.

The IESF Executive Board has been restructured following a decision of the General Assembly and consists solely of Elected Members. This is a significant step toward greater transparency and alignment with the federation’s statutes, ensuring that all leadership roles are filled through a democratic and inclusive process.

Additionally, some of the IESF committees have been strengthened with new leaders and members:

• Audit, Risk, and Governance Committee: Mr. Tomas Gabris (Chair), Mr. Jacopo Ierussi and Mr. Stevan Nenad Rosic (Members)
• Regulatory Committee Chair: Mr. Ido Orel Brosh
• Membership Committee Members: Mr. Soufiane El Filali and Mr. Jaroslav Melishek

The Executive Board will continue the IESF’s mission to unite, strengthen, and develop the international Esports ecosystem. This team will address all challenges and create opportunities with a focus on governance, innovation, and inclusivity, with a strong commitment to support the athletes and the National federations.

Under the guidance of the elected Board members, and committees, and with the support from the Secretariat, IESF is prepared to lead Esports into the next chapter, one defined by unity, democracy, and equality on the international stage.

A year of growth, unity, and new milestones awaits, as together we strengthen our structures, welcome new Members, and lead our community to greater success.

GRID, an esports data platform, has officially joined the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) as a first esports-focused Associate Member. This collaboration signifies a pivotal moment for esports integrity, aligning GRID with IBIA and its globally recognized integrity-focused members, who monitor over $300bn in sports bets per annum and have a growing focus on esports betting.

With this partnership, GRID and IBIA are committed to collaboratively addressing any integrity issues in esports, fostering trust across stakeholders, and setting a benchmark for excellence in the ecosystem. GRID has been a certified member of IBIA’s Data Standards program since 2022, actively contributing to the development of tailored esports integrity protocols. This membership further underscores GRID’s dedication to transparency and collaboration in combating betting-related corruption within esports.

Since 2018, GRID has operated an internal integrity department pioneering official data-driven solutions for esports. This makes GRID one of the first companies to monitor tournament and data integrity in the competitive sports sector and actively flag and report suspicious behavior, enabling it to collect a large database of integrity reports and insights.

IBIA is a not-for-profit body that protects regulated sports betting markets from match-fixing. It represents over 50 of the world’s leading betting companies which operate over 125 sports betting brands. IBIA’s global monitoring network is a highly effective anti-corruption tool, detecting and reporting suspicious activity in regulated betting markets using transactional activity linked to individual customer accounts.

Under the partnership, GRID and IBIA will share information relating to suspicious esports betting and potential match manipulation from their respective monitoring and intelligence platforms. IBIA members will also benefit from free access to wider integrity-focused resources supplied by GRID.

Moritz Maurer, CEO of GRID, commented: “Integrity is at the heart of GRID’s mission. By joining IBIA as an Associate Member, we are taking a definitive step toward establishing esports as a trusted and credible industry. This partnership enables us to further our efforts in promoting transparency, reducing risks associated with esports betting, and strengthening operational practices across the ecosystem.’’

Khalid Ali, CEO of IBIA, said: “We are delighted to welcome GRID as an Associate Member of IBIA. This partnership is a landmark for the esports sector and reflects our commitment to expanding our integrity initiatives into new markets. GRID’s expertise in esports data monitoring and integrity standards is an invaluable asset in our shared mission to combat betting corruption globally.”

The inaugural ICE Barcelona will take place on January 20 – 22, 2025 at Fira Barcelona Gran Via in Spain. The leading global gaming technology event announced its move to Barcelona in 2023 following many years in the UK capital. A long standing exhibitor at the show, Innovative Technology (ITL),  will be demonstrating their latest cash validation, age & identity verification technology on stand 3C30.

Marcus Tiedt, ITL Sales & Marketing Director commented, “ICE’s new dates and location is generating fresh excitement in the industry. For us Barcelona feels like our second home, as we have many customers in Spain and have had an office there since 1996.” 

“On the cash handling side of the business we continue to have a strong foothold in the global gaming market with our peripherals. We have seen massive success in Europe especially with the NV22 Spectral (NV22S) mixed note recycler that was adopted by 100% of Spanish Operators and OEMs as their recycler of choice in 2024. It has also seen great success in the UK. This compact device can easily retrofit into all AWP machines and with a 40 note mixed recycling capacity it ensures a reduction in refill and collection costs, plus coin starvation avoidance. Our team will be on hand to demonstrate how other global gaming markets could also reap the benefits of mixed note recycling  by upgrading to the NV22S and our SMART Coin System multi-coin hopper. For those operators needing to recycle higher volumes of cash, like in Germany, the Spectral Payout has an 80 mixed note recycling capacity, and for redemption terminals ICE visitors can check out our high capacity NV4000 multi-note recycler which has just been upgraded with even higher capacities. In North America and the Asia Pacific region our NV200 Spectral bill acceptor is getting more and more popular in Casinos and VLTs. In South America, where banknotes are exchanged rapidly by central banks, our customers like the ease of updating their validators with quick and free of charge firmware and dataset updates. Come and check out all these devices at the show, along with our latest innovation, the AI datasets, which will be shown for the first time at ICE!”

Innovative also have a range of AI-powered age & identity verification technology to help the industry prevent underage gambling.

Marcus continued, “MyCheckr and ICU Lite can assist the market with their responsible gambling obligations and legal requirements to protect minors. This technology is already in use in the UK, where the land-based gaming market has recently seen significant challenges and regulatory changes, with on-machine age verification (AV) a key development. Our technology boasts world leading accuracy, unlimited age checks with no subscriptions and GDPR accreditation. MyCheckr, complete with camera and screen, can be used at entrances to prevent minors entering age-restricted gaming zones, and ICU Lite can be fully integrated within a gaming machine to give an automated on-machine AV solution. Alerts can be pushed using the new ITL Connect app, currently on trial, to staff via a mobile, connecting multiple devices and enabling staff to respond immediately to any attempted unauthorised entry or play.  There will be live demos on the stand to show how quick and frictionless age checks can be to ensure uninterrupted play for those over 18 but help detect and protect underage or vulnerable players.”

Concluding Marcus said, “ICE is a key event in our show calendar and we are looking forward to the Barcelona debut. We welcome all visitors to the ITL stand 3C30 to learn more about how our technology can help their business. See you in Spain!”