CreateFuture has announced the appointment of Eddie Bennett as Director of Lottery & iGaming and Andy Wright as Strategic Advisor to its iGaming practice. Both will report to Hass Peymani, Industry Director of iGaming, as they begin their roles this month.
The gambling industry faces a significant challenge in integrating AI not due to technical limitations, but because of business and regulatory hurdles. Many AI programs in the sector falter not from weak models, but from fragmented data estates and outdated operating models.
Bennett and Wright bring extensive experience in navigating these challenges, thus strengthening CreateFuture’s position in the market by leveraging their expertise to tackle complex industry issues.
The AI obstacle in gaming is primarily a data issue. Operators often face challenges with AI programs due to inconsistent data accrued from years of acquisitions and platform migrations. This inconsistency leads to inefficiencies in personalization engines and trading models, requiring a consolidated data estate and a revised business model to unlock AI’s full potential.
CreateFuture is addressing these challenges with its work with evoke plc and others, focusing on building a unified data foundation. This foundation supports live production workloads such as fraud detection, customer service and personalization, ensuring consistent data accessibility across departments, which is crucial in regulated markets.
Eddie Bennett arrives with two decades of senior management experience in companies like Allwyn and Skybet. His focus will be on ensuring that the AI investments yield returns and meet regulatory compliance. Andy Wright, with 27 years of executive experience, will advise on completing AI projects that have stalled at the operational level.
Eddie Bennett says: “I have sat on the other side of this table. A model that performs in a test is not the same thing as a model a regulator will let you run. That takes a business case, an operating model and an audit trail.
“CreateFuture has the engineering and data depth already. My job is to make sure the commercial argument stands up as well as the technology does.”
Andy Wright adds: “Boards rarely struggle to approve the first investment. They struggle to explain the second when the first never reached the floor.
“The operators calling now are not asking how to start; they are asking how to finish what they have already funded.”
Hass Peymani concludes: “Almost every operator we meet has a slide deck of AI pilots and a data estate that cannot support any of them. This is not a failure of ambition; it is the cost of 15 years of growth by acquisition.
“The work that matters now is consolidating the platform and changing how the business runs on top of it, and that is a transformation job rather than a technology purchase. Eddie and Andy have both done it from the inside.”
CreateFuture is actively participating at SBC Summit, where it will sponsor the AI Academy. The company’s leaders will discuss how AI is revolutionising the industry and share insights on navigating these technological advancements.
TAGS: iGaming Appointments, CreateFuture, SBC Summit 2026
