Novibet Brings Giannis Papastamou to Help with Compliance

Novibet has tapped Giannis Papastamou as its new head of customer compliance, amid the brand’s global push and rapid expansion of active players and audiences. In his new position, Papastamou will be responsible for offering strategic guidance for Novibet and helping the brand navigate an increasingly difficult legal landscape that puts the onus on operators to make sure that players are protected.

Papastamou Has Experience Working for the Industry’s Finest

As part of his responsibilities, Papastamou will focus on ensuring responsible gambling and anti-money laundering standards, two cornerstones of the modern iGaming experience. The new hire is no stranger to running large-scale operations of similar scope. He previously worked in the customer due diligence department with bet365, arguably the biggest British bookmaker.

He has had time to hone his skill and move in lockstep with regulatory challenges over the past years. Novibet’s European footprint poses some unique challenges as the company has to ensure that it remains compliant with numerous local laws in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, Malta, and Greece.

Papastamou will also seek to fine-tune Novibet’s risk assessment strategy, overall regulatory requirements and expand on the business’s long-term goals. Onboarding new customers safely and based on a robust legal framework would allow Novibet to scale up its expansion efforts while not fearing regulatory backlash or omitting important steps in the process.  

Commenting on the latest hire, Novibet CEO George Athanasopoulos outlined both the challenges that the industry faces, but also the ways that operators can muster up their know-how and collective expertise to tackle any issue and provide players with wholesome experiences.

“In our industry, this commitment incorporates an additional promise to our members: to ensure that we always safeguard and protect them, so that they experience a safe, seamless, and unique entertainment experience with us.”

Novibet CEO George Athanasopoulos

Achieving Sustained Growth Through Regulation

Athanasopoulos expressed his confidence that hiring Papastamou has been a great strategic move for the operator. The onboarding process will reveal Papastamou’s talents but also help the new hire understand what Novibet seeks to achieve through its massive footprint in Europe.

There are at least several challenges he will have to address. First of which is the strong regulatory push to enforce somewhat more restrictive, but arguably better consumer-protection measures in places such as the United Kingdom and Italy.

Novibet provides both casino and sports betting products, which will give Papastamou two important verticals to work on as he seeks to uphold industry standards in each jurisdiction separately.