Flutter Tech4good Awards 2025

Leanne Bats is a dynamic sports industry strategist and architect of the future of sport. As Head of Digital and Innovation at Sport Waikato in New Zealand, she drives initiatives to combat inactivity through cutting-edge solutions. Her expertise spans basketball, football, and rugby, with previous roles including innovation at New Zealand Rugby (All Blacks and Black Ferns) and youth engagement in ANZ for FC Barcelona.

With a passion for transforming traditional sports models through technology and cultural innovation, she specializes in modern fandom analysis, women’s sports development, emerging tech and alternative markets that drive impact. An active content creator and advocate, Leanne authors the Outersport newsletter on sports evolution and consults on sport innovation.

Daniel Cade is a consultant and educator with over 15 years of international experience in sport, sustainability and social impact. He is the founder of Responsible Sport, a consultancy supporting federations, NGOs and agencies in strategy development, evaluation and education.

His work includes developing sustainability strategies for World Taekwondo and the Football Association of Ireland, creating indicator frameworks and a climate transition plan for the International Biathlon Union and contributing to UEFA’s social responsibility reporting and project evaluation. He has also designed and delivered online accredited sustainability education courses for federations, clubs and industry platforms.

Ali Jawad is a four-time Paralympian, Paralympic medalist, PhD candidate and co-founder of Accessercise — the world’s first fitness app built specifically for the disability community. The app empowers people to exercise independently and inclusively.

Rohn Malhotra is a serial entrepreneur with 17+ years of experience spanning startups, venture capital and innovation. Since starting his career as a management consultant at KPMG, he has built and guided numerous ventures, including merchandising startup Alma Mater, which he successfully exited in 2017. He currently serves as Founder & Managing Director of SportsTechX, the leading market intelligence platform for sports innovation, and as Investment Director at Match Ventures, a prominent European SportsTech VC. Beyond these roles, Malhotra is an active industry speaker and mentor to early-stage founders, and lecturer at leading Sports MBA programs.

Dr. Lombe Mwambwa works on inequalities in the context of sport. Her research interests focus on gender inequalities and social development in Zambia and around the world.

As Chief Executive Officer of the Global Observatory for Gender Equality and Sport (the GO) she leads the work of developing a monitoring mechanism to facilitate accountability for progress towards gender equality in sport, physical activity and physical education.

Dr. Mwambwa is a Post-Doctoral Researcher in the Institute of Sport Science at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. She explores topics including gender based violence, leadership, civil society, urban spaces, health and policy.

Lombe is a University of Zambia, University of Zimbabwe and University of Chichester, UK alumnus.

Lisa Nelson is a global strategic and technology leader with over 25 years of experience across the technology, software and financial services industries. Her diverse experience spans companies of all sizes – from early-stage, high-growth startups to mature, multi-national corporations.

Motivated by her desire to create a new way of working and living, Nelson retired from corporate America in 2019 to build a portfolio of things she loves. She currently serves as an independent board director and strategic advisor to both public and private companies across the tech, financial services, sports and consumer goods industries. She is also an advisor to several venture capital funds around the world and is an angel investor in several female-founded startups.

Prior to shifting her focus “portfolio life,” Nelson was a full-time operator. She most recently served as Managing Director of Microsoft’s first venture fund, M12, which she co-founded. During her 14-year tenure at Microsoft, she also served in executive roles across finance and business development. Prior to that, she worked in financial services in London and public accounting in Australia.

Nelson is a global citizen, having lived in Australia, Europe, the Middle East, North America and SE Asia. She has also traveled to more than 90 countries. These experiences, combined with her Asian and Pacific Islander heritage, have given her a truly global perspective. Nelson currently splits her time between Seattle, Washington and Auckland, New Zealand. She is an accomplished triathlete and avid runner and has completed over 100 races, including Ironman.

Andrew Sheh is an engineering and product executive with extensive experience in rapidly building and managing large teams in the US and internationally. He is formerly CTO of a tech startup, a product and engineering executive, a software developer and an engineering leader. Sheh is experienced in growing teams and building scalable platforms, working at pre-IPO/post-IPO companies in Silicon Valley and other areas. He also has experience working with financial, healthcare and government organizations for intelligence and space programs and formerly had TS/SCI FSP clearance.

Preeti Shetty is the CEO of Upshot, a tech social enterprise that helps nonprofit organizations manage, monitor and evidence the community work they deliver. She focuses her efforts on proving the difference sport can make to people’s lives and communities through impact measurement and evaluation. Built in 2012 by the Football Foundation, Upshot is now used by over 1,400 organizations across the UK and internationally. Outside of her day job, Shetty is a Non Executive Director of Brentford Football Club. She is also the Vice Chair of Street Child United, a Founding Advisor of Ready Sport Global and the co-founder of Valeur Sport.

In 2024, she was named one of the 50 most influential women in sport by the Telegraph and was named as Leaders in Sport 40 Under 40. She is passionate about the powerful blend of sport and purpose and leverages her expertise in data, technology and social impact to create a more equitable sports industry.

Rob Smith is the Associate Director of Emerging Technologies & Insights at Flutter Entertainment and the founder of Alpha Hub, a global innovation hub that brings together start-ups, academics and corporate partners to explore technologies and ideas with the potential to shape the future of betting and gaming.

Since 2017, he has led on identifying and piloting transformative solutions across the sector. Before that, Smith worked in strategy and insights, where he focused on future trends, technology roadmaps and innovation pipelines, while also providing thought-leadership to both business leaders and enterprise clients.