The iGaming Leader

About The iGaming Leader

The iGaming Leader is hosted by Leo Judkins, founder of The iGaming Leader Mastermind. Every other week, Leo sits down with Founders, C-suite executives, and VPs from across the iGaming industry for conversations you won't hear on a conference panel. The real decisions. The hard calls. What leadership actually looks like from the inside. No keynote polish. No PR answers. Just honest conversations between people who know the industry. New episodes every other Wednesday.

Publisher

Leo Judkins, Founder - iGaming Leader Mastermind

Category

business · business

Language

en

Explicit

Yes

First episode

16 Nov 2024

Latest episode

7 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

63 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   7 Oct 2026

   “You’re Incorrect, Tommy” - Inside Xtremepush’s Culture of Challenge

   In this episode, Leo talks with Tommy Kearns about how rugby shaped the way he runs a company: trust, loyalty, accountability, direct feedback and a role for everyone. He is clear about what he does not want around him. "I don't want yes men around me." Everything gets challenged until the team reaches alignment, and then everyone commits. He also covers the harder parts of the story. Tommy lost his money in the property crash after selling his Mexico business. Xtremepush was bootstrapped and profitable within 13 to 14 months. It then took growth capital in 2021 and went negative for nearly 24 months. He also talks about the 2023 Thunderbite acquisition, why Xtremepush put CRM, gamification and loyalty into one platform, and why he thinks trust matters more in the AI era. ABOUT THE GUEST Tommy Kearns is CEO and Co-Founder of Xtremepush, a leading company now serving 230 iGaming brands around the world, including more than half of the EGR top 50. He is a technology entrepreneur with a track record in the global internet and mobile industry. He builds businesses that solve large customer problems for large enterprises, with technology and automation where relevant. His core skills include customer analytics and engagement, digital strategy, mobile and system application development, innovation, business planning, market entry analysis and deployment, and building commercial partnerships. IN THIS EPISODE 00:00:00 Introducing Tommy 00:03:00 Rugby career at Connacht and the lessons that carried into business 00:08:00 Challenge and commit: no yes men and the leadership team 00:12:00 Why toxicity is viral, Leaders for Leaders and hiring for urgency 00:19:00 Lean culture: single-digit churn, pod systems and Keep Driving Hard (KDH) 00:22:00 Career path: the Caribbean, Mexico, the 2009 property crash and the origin of Xtremepush 00:28:00 Bootstrapping, growth capital in 2021 and the first acquisition 00:32:00 One platform for CRM, gamification and loyalty, 24 months in the red and the Thunderbite acquisition 00:38:00 Expert OS, agentic AI, trust and the power of saying no QUOTES FROM TOMMY "I don't want yes men around me. I want people to challenge my thoughts. My thoughts are directionally very good, but specifically not always correct." "Toxicity is viral. It needs to be rooted out." "You can't learn urgency. You either have it or you don't, and you have to test for it." "You have to have felt failure. You have to feel it. You have to really feel it, not just see it." "Success is not permanent, but neither is failure." "Trust is going to become more important, relationships are gonna become more important." IMPORTANT LINKS Connect with Tommy Kearns on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tommykearns/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tommykearns/) Connect with Leo Judkins on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leo-judkins/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/leo-judkins/) Get the iGaming Leader newsletter: https://www.igamingleader.com/signup (https://www.igamingleader.com/signup) Join the iGaming Leader Mastermind: https://www.igamingleader.com/ (https://www.igamingleader.com/) This episode is brought to you by Sumsub, the full-cycle verification platform for iGaming operators. Player onboarding, AML and fraud prevention, all in one place. Learn more: sumsub.com/gambling or https://sumsub.link/8gu

2. 

   23 Sept 2026

   Why This CEO Works 15-Hour Days Across Two Continents

   Yoni Sidi wanted to slow down. After 17 years in corporate iGaming, he had a simple plan: build a platform, generate traffic, play golf, and reduce the pressure. Then Winpot took off in Mexico, the B2B business grew to 14 or 15 clients, and he found himself working 14 to 15-hour days across two continents. In this episode of the iGaming Leader podcast, Yoni, CEO of Wiztech Group, talks about building a bootstrapped operator and tech business from scratch, leading across cultures, and what he would tell his 2022 self. About the guest: Yoni Sidi is an experienced Chief Executive and Marketing Leader with a proven track record in the global iGaming and entertainment industry. He is currently driving growth at the intersection of technology, regulated gaming, and customer engagement, with skills across scaling brands, building high-performing teams, and developing data-driven strategies in acquisition, retention, and brand partnerships. He is passionate about bridging innovative digital platforms with real-world experiences and is actively expanding into new markets across LATAM, Europe, and beyond. In this episode: 00:00 Introduction 00:48 Growing up around Ronnie Rosenthal, Liverpool, and Tottenham 06:29 Three years of military service as a combat instructor and what it taught him about standards 08:14 Building Winpot with no outside funding, brick by brick 12:38 How close he still is to the original vision of slowing down 15:32 Why switching off has been harder than any commercial decision 18:41 Managing two businesses across Cyprus and Mexico in different time zones 26:48 The hard part of leadership is people, not strategy 32:16 Learning to lead across Israeli, Mexican, British, and Cypriot cultures 35:50 What he would go back and tell himself in 2022 Quotes from Yoni: "My aim and vision was to literally stop generating traffic. I'd be playing golf. No pressure, no stress. We make plans and God laughs." "The bad times will feel like you have five elephants on your shoulders. The good times will not feel as good as you expect them to be." "It can be a really lonely place at the top when you're making your own decisions." "I wasted a lot of my own time and energy and deteriorated my own mental health by being too ashamed to ask for help or for advice." "I would always choose the people over the speed." "Everything will be okay. Nothing is life or death. Speak to people. Share your problems." Connect with Yoni: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yoni-sidi-b5b3a88/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/yoni-sidi-b5b3a88/) Follow Leo Judkins on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leo-judkins/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/leo-judkins/) Subscribe to the iGaming Leader newsletter: https://www.igamingleader.com/signup (https://www.igamingleader.com/signup) Join the iGaming Leader Mastermind: https://www.igamingleader.com/ (https://www.igamingleader.com/) This episode is sponsored by Sumsub, the full-cycle verification platform trusted by top iGaming operators worldwide. Player onboarding, AML, fraud prevention, all in one place. Learn more at https://sumsub.link/8gu (https://sumsub.link/8gu)

3. 

   9 Sept 2026

   Our Biggest Failure Is My Proudest Moment

   David Carrion started as a dealer on Margarita Island, Venezuela in 1995. Thirty years later, he's Chief Strategy Officer at Gaming1, having run live poker events for PokerStars, launched a casino from scratch in his hometown, and led a four-state US market entry. In this episode of the iGaming Leader podcast, David walks us through four transitions every leader has to make: from doing to letting do, from knowing everything to knowing very little, from argument to context, and from the smaller to the bigger picture. In this episode: 00:00 Guest intro 00:03 Dealing cards at 18 on Margarita Island 00:06 Running Casino Buenos Aires for 21 million people 00:10 Launching Casino Asturias from zero 00:16 The PokerStars Caribbean Adventure 00:21 What PokerStars got right about culture 00:36 The PCA 10th anniversary trying to break 10,000 players 00:44 Launching in four US states as a relatively small Belgian company 00:46 The strongest stretch of leadership I have ever went through Quotes from David: "Launching USA was one of our biggest failures, and that's why it's one of my proudest moments." "There's nothing more dangerous than a man that doesn't know what he doesn't know." "The higher you are, the harder it is to influence." "Growth is for sure on the other side of comfort." "There aren't that many superheroes out there. There's a lot of common-sense and hard work." Connect with David: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-carrion-82332952/ Follow Leo Judkins on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leo-judkins/   (https://www.linkedin.com/in/leo-judkins/%20%20) Subscribe to the iGaming Leader newsletter: https://www.igamingleader.com/signup (https://www.igamingleader.com/signup) Join the iGaming Leader Mastermind: https://www.igamingleader.com/ (https://www.igamingleader.com/) This episode is sponsored by Sumsub, the leading identity verification provider for iGaming operators. Learn more at https://sumsub.link/8gu (https://sumsub.link/8gu)

Who has been a guest on The iGaming Leader

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Sidharth Swarup
• Andreas Koeberl
• Andy Koeberl
• Michael Baker-Mosley
• Savvas Fellas

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

6,286

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Podcast Authority Score: 55 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

81

Social presence

0

YouTube

74

Engagement

0

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