SOFTSWISS has received two awards at the Casino Guru Awards 2026. The company won the Industry Culture Shaper category, and Valentina Bagniya, Chief Marketing Officer at SOFTSWISS, received the Woman Leader of the Year award. The winners were announced at a live ceremony on 25 May 2026 at The Xara Lodge, Malta.
The Industry Culture Shaper category rewards companies that create initiatives with real impact on employees' personal and professional development, while also influencing workplace standards across the iGaming industry.
In 2025, more than 500 SOFTSWISS employees gained access to professional mental health support. More than 800 took part in internal and external training, while over 700 improved their language skills through company-sponsored courses. Employee referrals accounted for 31% of new hires that year.
The company's flagship people initiatives of 2025 include:
- SOFTSWISS Young Fest, a four-day 15th-anniversary gathering in Turkey that brought together over 2,000 employees and partners from 46 countries. Recently, the event received five awards at the Eventex Award 2026, including gold in the Corporate Event category.
- SOFTSWISS Kids Camp, an 11-day summer programme for employees' children. It won the Eventex Award 2025 in the Corporate Event category.
Alongside the company recognition, Casino Guru Awards named Valentina Bagniya Woman Leader of the Year for her contribution to SOFTSWISS' global brand growth and marketing strategy.
Since joining SOFTSWISS in 2020, Bagniya has built the company’s marketing department from the ground up. Today, the team includes 70 specialists working across PR, events, digital campaigns, employer branding, social media, creative production, and analytics. She led SOFTSWISS to achieve the number one media share of voice in iGaming for four consecutive years and to increase global brand awareness fivefold.
Under Bagniya’s leadership, the tech provider expanded its international visibility through campaigns featuring F1 legend Rubens Barrichello, SOFTSWISS Non-Executive Director in Latin America, and launched large-scale brand activations at ICE Barcelona, SBC Lisbon, and SiGMA Central Europe.
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It feels special to receive these awards together because they reflect the same thing – SOFTSWISS people. None of this happens because of one person. It is the result of a team that keeps bringing ideas, energy, creativity, and a lot of care into everything we do. I am especially happy that Casino Guru recognised the culture behind the business, because building an environment where people want to grow and stay matters to us just as much as business results.
Beyond SOFTSWISS, Bagniya serves as a regular judge and speaker at the industry's major gatherings. At the recent Next Valletta Summit in Malta, she opened the Marketing Hub with a keynote on building resilient brands in mature markets.
In addition to shaping iGaming culture, SOFTSWISS continues to influence the industry by introducing new product categories. The company was the first in the sector to roll out the Prediction Markets Platform – a fixed-odds solution offering event-based bets on real-world events in politics, economics, and technology.