The new COO arrives from the client side of the company, with a mandate to standardise processes, put data behind every decision, and apply AI where it saves real working hours.
NuxGame has appointed Mariia Baranova as Chief Operating Officer. Baranova takes charge of operations across the company after several years leading account management, where the client service she built has earned an average satisfaction score of 4.8 out of 5 from operators over the past six months.
The appointment follows a bigger change in the business itself. NuxGame started out as an iGaming software provider; today it operates an open ecosystem for operator growth, combining a casino and sportsbook platform, game aggregation, sweepstakes-ready infrastructure, and a vetted partner network. Keeping every part of that system moving in step, at scale, is an operational challenge — and the company chose a leader who has already solved it once, with the team closest to clients.
As Chief Operating Officer, Baranova is responsible for the operational agenda across the company: uniform processes in every team, decisions grounded in data, and AI deployed where it genuinely removes manual work. For operators, the near-term roadmap brings even faster client reporting and transparent, trackable SLAs.
Daniel Heywood, Chief Executive Officer at NuxGame, said:
Our next stage is about turning progress into a scalable, data-driven, and predictable organisation, one that grows faster without losing quality, transparency, or control. That is operational work, and Mariia is among the best operational minds I know. She sees the whole system where others see a list of tasks. And she got here the rarest way possible: by always being completely herself — direct, honest, and bold in a very smart, valuable way.
Mariia Baranova, Chief Operating Officer at NuxGame, said:
Everything can be solved: that’s the belief I bring into this role. My job is to make NuxGame faster and more precise — numbers in front of every decision, answers that take a minute instead of a request to an analyst and three days of waiting, and people’s thinking (the one resource I will never automate) always getting the final word.
Baranova is also recognised across the industry for developing people: earlier this year, she was shortlisted for the Outstanding Mentor Award at the WiG Diversity Awards 2026.
About NuxGame
NuxGame is a B2B iGaming company founded in 2018 that has grown from a software provider into an open ecosystem for operator growth. It combines an award-winning casino and sportsbook platform, game aggregation with 18,500+ titles from 140+ providers, sweepstakes-ready infrastructure, and a vetted network of partners covering CRM, payments, orchestration, and traffic — supporting 100+ operators worldwide as they launch, scale, and enter new markets. In 2026, NuxGame was named Casino Platform of the Year at the iGaming News Awards. Visit https://nuxgame.com/ for more information and inquiries.
Media contact: Yanina Kaplya, CMO at NuxGame — [email protected]